Land Cover Industry

Viticulture

The expansion of Marlborough's wine industry over the past three decades has changed the face of the province. Marlborough remains New Zealand's largest wine region and accounts for a substantial amount of the region’s economy. The demand for land for vineyards has caused many traditional pastoral farms to convert to vineyards or sell.

Class code 33 on the New Zealand Land Cover Database includes predominantly vineyards as well as orchards and other perennial crops. Council keeps more detailed records of vineyard land than the New Zealand landcover database.’

As vineyard plantings increase in Marlborough so too does the conversion of pastoral land to viticulture. As Table 1 shows, the area of pasture in Marlborough has significantly decreased from 1996 to 2018, whilst in comparison the area of vineyards has expanded. This decrease in pasture may not only be due to the conversion to vineyards but also the expansion of Marlborough’s urban areas.

1996 vineyard data from LCDB 1996. Other vineyard data sourced from Councils vineyard monitoring.
Other category represents all conservation land, privately owned native landcover, lakes, rivers and miscellaneous landuses

The Vineyard interactive map is based off remote sensing so may not be entirely accurate. We welcome any corrections. Please email the Land Resources team at landresources@marlborough.govt.nz

Go to the Marlborough Vineyard Coverage map

Forestry

Plantation forestry is a valuable land use in Marlborough. Amongst other things, it provides employment, can help stabilise erosion prone land and sequests carbon dioxide. However, the harvesting phase can result in a dramatic change to the environment.

Forest harvesting involves earthworks to construct roads, tracks and skid sites (harvest landings). It also involves vegetation removal - the trees being harvested and in some instances native or other vegetation that gets removed or destroyed in the process. If good practices are not followed there is the potential for adverse environmental effects.

There are often different ways of meeting the environmental standards of Marlborough's plans and the conditions of resource consent. The practical methods described in this guide provide examples to help you achieve good environmental outcomes.

The guide below is intended as a first port of call when considering how to manage the environmental effects of forest harvest operations. It outlines in broad terms:

What Marlborough's Resource Management Plans are trying to achieve in terms of environmental performance with forest harvest operations
Basic methods to help achieve compliance with permitted activities and resource consent conditions
Where you can find more information

Go to the Environmental Guidelines: Forest Harvesting Guide

Below is a collection of national and international good practice guidelines, legislation, spatial information, research and funding options all relevant to forestry, land management and environmental protection.

In 2018, Figure 3 shows how forestry covered approximately 82,084 ha in Marlborough and at any one time 10% of that land was harvested. Exotic Forestry & Deciduous Hardwoods have fluctuated over time as shown in Figure 4.

Plantation forestry is a valuable land use in Marlborough. Amongst other things, it provides employment, can help stabilise erosion prone land and sequesters carbon dioxide. However, the harvesting phase can result in a dramatic change to the environment.

As shown in Figure 5, the amount of forestry that has been harvested in the region between 1996 and 2018 has increased significantly. Harvesting can put a considerable amount of pressure on local roading infrastructure and if good practices are not followed there is the potential for adverse environmental effects.

Go to the Environmental Guidelines: Forest Harvesting

Pastoral/Farming

Pastoral farming was the primary land use in Marlborough post European settlement and the backbone of the region’s economy. Due to Marlborough’s favourable climate and sheltered valleys sheep thrived after the first shipments arrived at the Wairau Bar in 1846.

From the latest 2018 LCDB data, Pasture covers roughly 355,000 ha in Marlborough. It is estimated that 170,000 ha of pastureland is owned by Department of Conservation which equates to 34% of the total land classes that they own.