National Parks Act 1980

Offences

70: Penalties

You could also call this:

"What happens if you break a rule in a national park"

If you break a rule in the National Parks Act 1980 and there's no specific punishment mentioned for that rule, you can still be punished. The punishment depends on whether you're an individual person or a company.

If you're an individual person, you might have to go to jail for up to 1 year, or pay a fine of up to $100,000, or both.

If you're a company, you might have to pay a fine of up to $200,000.

In both cases, if you keep breaking the rule over time, you might have to pay an extra fine of up to $10,000 for each day you continue to break the rule.

These punishments are to make sure people follow the rules in national parks and protect these special places.

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This page was last updated on 13 May 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM38512.

Topics:

Environment and resources > Conservation

69B: Penalties for offences committed for commercial gain or reward, or

"Tougher punishments for breaking national park rules to make money"

70A: Sentence of community work, or

"You might have to do work for your community if you break national park rules"

Part 7Offences

70Penalties

Every person who commits an offence against this Act for which no penalty is prescribed elsewhere in this Act is liable on conviction to,—
in the case of an individual, imprisonment for a term not exceeding 1 year or a fine not exceeding $100,000, or both:
in the case of a body corporate, a fine not exceeding $200,000:
in any case, where the offence is a continuing one, a further fine not exceeding $10,000 for every day on which the offence continues.

Notes

Section 70: replaced, on 25 October 2013, by section 13 of the Conservation (Natural Heritage Protection) Act 2013 (2013 No 89).