Hauraki Gulf Forum
Hauraki Gulf Marine Park
Established by the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act in February 2000, the park protects important areas within a lived-in, worked-in environment, and includes land controlled by different agencies.
Although an innovative concept in New Zealand, many similar parks have been established overseas.
Area of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park
The Hauraki Gulf has a natural richness, environmental quality, biological diversity and landscape that make it outstanding and distinctive within New Zealand. For nearly 1000 years it has been a focal point for human activity and home to generations of residents.
The park is a mix of reserves and conservation areas administered by the Department of Conservation, and the surrounding foreshore, seabed and seawater. Local authorities can also add their reserves to the park while retaining ownership and control, and protected private or Maori land can be included in the park at the owner's request.
Why protect the Gulf?
Natural and historic features of the Gulf are of national and international importance, and it is home to a host of wildlife and plants not found anywhere else in the world.
The hinterland of the park encompasses the most intensively developed parts of New Zealand - metropolitan Auckland and the Hauraki-Piako lowlands - and the Gulf itself is one of the lifelines of commerce in New Zealand, serving the Port of Auckland and a significant fishing and transport industry. It also provides recreation opportunities for residents and visitors.
- The Hauraki Gulf, Waitemata Harbour, Firth of Thames, east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula.
- Little Barrier Island, the Mokohinau Islands, more than half of Great Barrier Island, Cuvier Island, Rangitoto Island, Motutapu Island, Mount Moehau, Mansion House on Kawau Island.
- North Head Historic Reserve.
- Four marine reserves.
- The internationally recognised wetland at the Firth of Thames.
Read the full text of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act
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