- School of Biological Sciences, Level 2, Te Toki a Rata Building, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6012, New Zealand
- Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne, 53 Waiapu Road, Karori, Wellington
- Faculty of Law, Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington, Old Government Buildings, 55 Lambton Quay, Wellington 6011, New Zealand
- Rubicon Chambers, Level 3, 276 Lambton Quay, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
New Zealand’s lizard fauna is speciose and widespread across all regions of the country. Lizard species use diverse habitats in a wide range of terrestrial environments, including grasslands, indigenous forest, rural pastureland, and exotic vegetation in suburban gardens. Human land uses impact many lizard species; habitat loss and direct mortality from development present an ongoing threat to the persistence of many species. Despite the existence of legislation affording absolute protection to lizards and requiring land use activities to mitigate impacts upon biodiversity, in most cases of land use no consideration is given to lizards, and the loss of lizard populations is unquantified. Here, we examine four issues for native lizards during land use: (1) lack of protection under the Wildlife Act 1953, (2) lack of consideration during resource consenting due to current planning instruments, (3) incompleteness of information provided during consent applications, and (4) uncertainty of the outcomes of methods used to mitigate impacts for lizards. In summary, we find that current policies and practices are inadequate to prevent ongoing population loss; this is likely increasing the risk of species extirpation or extinction. We recommend that the proposed reform of wildlife protection legislation considers the practicalities of enforcing wildlife protection during land use through improved integration with resource management legislation. Further, any reform to resource management legislation needs to both improve the substantive protection requirements and adopt best practice compliance and enforcement mechanisms. In the meantime, changes to current practices are required, such as increasing awareness of the protected status of lizards among developers and those who advise them, and requiring a more comprehensive assessment of the impacts of activities upon lizards during consent applications. It is possible to start immediately to better protect this often-overlooked taonga.