The government is undertaking a comprehensive reform of conservation legislation. Currently, it is consulting on a set of targeted amendments to legislation regarding conservation management planning, and the concessions system.

Ngāi Tahu is mounting a legal challenge to the (former) Minister of Conservation's appointment decisions for the West Coast Conservation Board. It appears the iwi has a beef with the Minister for having the impudence to reappoint a member of the board without engagement with tangata whenua and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu as treaty partner.