Caring for our park buffers

About park buffer zones

A park buffer zone is an area surrounding an ecologically important park.

These parks:

• are home to native plants and animals
• have to be protected from invasive pest plants.

A buffer zone extends 500 metres beyond the park boundary.

Regional Pest Management Plan (RPMP) rules for pest plants

The RPMP sets out rules that require certain pest plants to be controlled on all land in the buffer zones. This is to prevent pest plants from invading the park.

RPMP guides all our pest control programmes. Visit Regional Pest Management Plan for more information.

Check if you are in a park buffer zone

Only some parks in Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland have buffer zones around them.

We do not do work in all of the park buffer zones at the same time. If we are working in a park buffer zone, the park is marked as ‘active’ on our maps.

Visit Conservation map to:

• find park buffer zones
• find out which buffer zones are ‘active’.

Why we need to control park buffer weeds

Pest plants spread very fast and can grow in lots of different environments.

They can quickly invade native ecosystems and have a significant negative impact. Native plants can be smothered and killed, and native seedlings cannot grow up through the pest plants.

This reduces food sources and habitats for native animals like birds and reptiles.

Find out more about park buffer zone pest plants

Select the following images to find out more about each pest plant:

Bushy asparagus

Climbing asparagus

Moth plant

Rhamnus

Wild ginger

Woolly nightshade

Controlling other weeds

To find out how to control other weed species that may be a threat to the environment or to your garden, visit:

• How to control weeds
• Pest search

Visit Auckland Biodiversity Facebook page to follow and take part in community projects.