Legal persons: Te Urewera, Te Awa Tupua, Taranaki Mounga

On Thursday 30 January 2025, Taranaki Maunga was officially granted legal personhood in New Zealand law. It becomes the third New Zealand geographical landmark to receive this status, following Te Urewera in 2014 and the Whanganui River in 2017.

What does it mean to grant “legal personhood” to natural geographical features?

Granting “legal personhood” to natural geographical features is a novel approach to recognising the intrinsic values and rights of nature. This concept acknowledges that nature has inherent rights, beyond human interests or ownership.

In New Zealand, granting personhood to Te Urewera, Te Awa Tupua and Taranaki Mounga recognises the spiritual and cultural significance of these natural features to the indigenous Māori people. This acknowledges their deep connection with the land, which is central to their identity and worldview.

Beyond recognition, this legal status has practical implications:

1. Rights and interests: as a legal person, these natural features have rights and interests that must be considered and protected.

2. Conservation and management: personhood can lead to a more effective conservation and management of these areas.

3. Decision-making: the legal personhood of these natural features requires that their interests be represented in decision-making processes, ensuring their protection and conservation.

Are there any similar cases outside New Zealand?

In 2018, the Uttarakhand High Court granted legal personhood to the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India, recognising their ecological and cultural significance.

Te Urewera

Te Urewera is a vast, sparsely populated, rugged hill country located between the Bay of Plenty and Hawkes Bay. It is the ancestral home of the Tūhoe people and is famous for its lakes and forested beauty. Te Urewera National Park was established in 1954 and disestablished in 2014 as a result of the Ngāi Tūhoe Treaty of Waitangi settlement, passed into law in the Te Urewera Act 2014. It is now administered by the Te Urewera Board, which comprises joint Tūhoe and Crown membership. Lake Waikaremoana, a 256 metre deep lake, is located in Te Urewera. It is the North Island’s deepest lake, deeper than the much larger Lake Taupō, which plunges to 186 metres at its deepest point. Taupō covers over 600 square kilometres, while Waikaremoana has a surface area of 54 square kilometres. The name means “sea of rippling waters.” The name “Urewera” means “burnt manhood,” which comes from a story of a chief who rolled over into the campfire in his sleep. Te Urewera has the largest expanse of indigenous forest in the North Island. Tūhoe people also bear the sobriquet Ngā Tamariki o te Kohu (‘the children of the mist’).

Te Whanganui Awa (Te Awa Tupua)

The Whanganui River is the country’s third-longest river. It is also navigable over about 230 kilometres from the North Island’s volcanic plateau through Whanganui National Park to the Tasman Sea at the town of Whanganui. Some 80 pā and village sites were built along its banks and cliffs. It was also an historic arterial route through that part of the central North Island. The stretch of river between Taumarunui (a small town located directly west of the southern end of lake Taupō) and Pipiriki (closer to the Tasman Sea) is a popular river journey. The Whanganui River was represented in the Hollywood movie River Queen. The people say, “Ko au te awa. Ko te awa ko au.” (I am the river. The river is me). Some of the iwi that connect to the river are Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Hāua, Ngāti Hauiti, Ngāti Rangi and Tamahaki.

Ruruku Whakatupua, the Whanganui River Deed of Settlement was signed on 4 August 2014. The first part of the settlement, Te Mana o Te Awa Tupua, provides for the establishment of Te Pā Auroa nā Te Awa Tupua, a new legal framework to recognise the Whanganui River as a ‘legal person.’ The second part of the settlement, Te Mana o Te Iwi o Whanganui, provides financial redress of approximately $115 million to the iwi of Whanganui, including $30 million to a fund called Te Korotete to support the health and wellbeing of Te Awa Tupua.

In March 2017, the Te Awa Tupua Act 2017 was passed, assigning the river the rights, duties and protections of a legal person. 

Taranaki Mounga

Taranaki Mounga (Mounga is a locally preferred spelling of the word maunga) is a remarkably symmetrical volcanic cone on the West Coast of the North Island, rising high above the flat Taranaki plains to the east and the Tasman Sea coast to the west. It is the second-highest mountain of the North Island after Ruapehu, which can be seen a hundred kilometres to the east from the slopes of Taranaki on a clear day.

The law confers Taranaki, its companion peaks and surrounding environment the status of a legal person, to be named Te Kāhui Tupua. The former colonial name Mount Egmont is being laid to rest. The law change is the final step in implementing a 2016 Treaty Settlement for the iwi of Taranaki. The settlement also provided an apology from the crown for its actions during the 19th-century Taranaki wars and confiscation of Taranaki land, including the mountain. The apology acknowledged the destructive effect of the confiscations on Taranaki iwi, who lost their access to culturally and economically vital natural areas.