Auckland's natural environment

Gannet at Muriwai

To help protect and preserve the Auckland of the future, we all need to play our part in:

• protecting the biosecurity of the region from pest plants and pest animals
• protecting native plants and environments
• planting more native plants.

Auckland in the past

Originally the region was covered almost entirely by native forest, with kauri, rimu, taraire, tawa and pohutukawa, and with wetlands and swamp forest in the low-lying areas. Along the extensive coastline, the forest would have given way to salt marsh and mangroves, and estuaries with pingao and spinifex on the sand dunes.

Auckland today

Today, most of our remaining native forest has been modified and is regenerating from clearance and milling from the time of European settlement.

Of the region's total land area only:

• 12 per cent remains as natural forest
• 18 per cent is regenerating native scrub
• 14 per cent of the region's land is protected natural areas, including ARC regional parks, Department of Conservation reserves and local authority reserves.

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