New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands
New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands
The New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands consist of five island groups (the Snares, Bounty Islands, Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands and Campbell Island) in the Southern Ocean south-east of New Zealand. The islands, lying between the Antarctic and Subtropical Convergences and the seas, have a high level of productivity, biodiversity, wildlife population densities and endemism among birds, plants and invertebrates. They are particularly notable for the large number and diversity of pelagic seabirds and penguins that nest there. There are 126 bird species in total, including 40 seabirds of which eight breed nowhere else in the world.
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
The New Zealand Sub-antarctic Islands (NZSAI) encompasses five island groups that lie between latitudes 47o and 53o south; Snares Islands/Tini Heke, Bounty Islands, Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands/Motu Maha and Campbell Island/Motu Ihupuku and the islands surrounding it. The World Heritage status also applies to the marine environment out to 12 nautical miles from each group. Including a total land area of 76,458ha, the marine area takes in 1,400,000 ha and constitutes one of New Zealand’s remotest protected natural areas, including some of the world’s least-modified islands.
The property lies between the Antarctic and Subtropical Convergences and the seas have a high level of productivity, biodiversity, wildlife population densities and endemism. While the NZSAI’s are all located on the Pacific Tectonic Plate, the different geological history and age of each island group, and their geographical isolation from mainland New Zealand and from each other, has shaped the unique and remarkable biodiversity of the islands including distinctive plants, birds, invertebrates, marine mammals, fish and marine algae assemblages. The biota contains numerous endemic and/or rare elements, and some extraordinary examples of adaptation.
Particularly notable is the abundance and diversity of pelagic seabirds and penguins that utilise the islands for breeding. The property supports the most diverse community of breeding seabirds in the Southern Ocean. There are 126 species of birds, including 40 seabirds, eight of which breed nowhere else in the world. The islands support major populations of 10 of the world’s 22 species of albatross and almost 2 million sooty shearwaters nest on Snares Island alone. Land birds also display a surprising diversity, considering the limited land area available, with a large number of threatened endemics including one of the world’s rarest ducks. More than 95% of the world’s population of New Zealand sea lion (formerly known as Hooker’s sea lion) breed here and the marine environment provides critical breeding areas for the southern right whale.
The plant life of the NZSAI is notable for its diversity, special forms and unique communities, yet another outstanding example of the biological and ecological processes significant in the property. The Snares Islands and two islands in the Auckland group (Adams and Disappointment), are among the last substantial areas in the world harbouring vegetation essentially unmodified by humans or alien species. Another notable feature about the NZSAI is the land-sea interface and the close inter-dependence of both environments for many of the species – the inclusion of the marine environment out to 12 nautical miles in the world heritage property recognis es this.
Te Wahipounamu – South West New Zealand
The landscape in this park, situated in south-west New Zealand, has been shaped by successive glaciations into fjords, rocky coasts, towering cliffs, lakes and waterfalls. Two-thirds of the park is covered with southern beech and podocarps, some of which are over 800 years old. The kea, the only alpine parrot in the world, lives in the park, as does the rare and endangered takahe, a large flightless bird.
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
Te Wahipounamu - South West New Zealand
Located in the south-west corner of New Zealand’s’ South Island, Te Wähipounamu – South West New Zealand covers 10% of New Zeland’s landmass (2.6 million hectares) and is spread over a 450km strip extending inland 40 - 90km from the Tasman Sea. The property exhibits many classic examples of the tectonic, climatic, and glacial processes that have shaped the earth. The great Alpine Fault divides the region and marks the contact zone of the Indo-Australian and Pacific continental plates making it one of only three segments of the world’s major plate boundaries on land. Collision between the two tectonic plates constructs the main mountain range, known as the Southern Alps/Kä Tiritiri o te Moana, which rise to nearly 4 000m altitude within a mere 30km from the sea.
Overwhelmingly a mountainous wilderness, including significant piedmont surfaces in the north-west glaciation, both historic and modern, is a dominant landscape feature. Spectacular landforms include: the 15 fiords which deeply indent the Fiordland coastline; a sequence of 13 forested marine terraces progressively uplifted more than 1000m along the Waitutu coastline over the past million years; a series of large lake-filled glacial troughs along the south-eastern margin; the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers which descend into temperate rainforest; and spectacular moraines of ultramafic rock extending to the Tasman coastline.
As the largest and least modified area of New Zealand's natural ecosystems, the flora and fauna has become the world’s best intact modern representation of the ancient biota of Gondwana. The distribution of these plants and animals is inextricably linked to the dynamic nature of the physical processes at work in the property. The region contains outstanding examples of plant succession after glaciation, with sequences along altitudinal (sea level to permanent snowline), latitudinal (wet west to the dry east), and chronological gradients (fresh post-glacial surfaces to old Pleistocene moraines).
It is the combination of geological and climatic processes, the resultant landforms, the unique biota displaying evolutionary adaptation over a diverse range of climatic and altitudinal gradients, all in a relatively pristine state, that give Te Wähipounamu – South West New Zealand its exceptional and outstanding natural characteri stics.
