Ngāi Tahu Farming chosen to operate country's largest farm, Molesworth Station
The New Zealand Department of Conservation has selected Ngāi Tahu Farming to manage Molesworth Station, the country's largest farm. The decision aims to balance commercial farming operations with the preservation of the area's biodiversity and cultural heritage.
Why it matters
Managing such a large, ecologically significant area involves complex trade-offs between agricultural productivity and environmental conservation.
Ngāi Tahu Farming has been chosen by the Department of Conservation to operate the country's largest farm.
Molesworth Station , an iconic 180-thousand hectare high country farm that spanned Marlborough and North Canterbury, was run as a cattle farm by state-owned Pāmu Landcorp.
The area, known formally as the Rangitahi/Molesworth Recreation Reserve, covers 180,000 hectares of land owned by the Crown and administered by the Department of Conservation (DOC) .
DOC announced on Friday afternoon it would invite Ngāi Tahu Farming - a subsidiary of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Group - to apply for a concession to manage the land.
Four other bids, including one by former farm manager Jim Ward, were unsuccessful.
DOC deputy director-general regional operations Henry Weston said farming would remain the core commercial activity at Molesworth but it was also a nationally important drylands ecosystem with significant biodiversity, heritage, recreational and cultural values.
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