The Lake Taupō Protection Trust

The Lake Taupō Protection Trust was set up in February 2007 to administer the $81.5 million fund to protect Lake Taupō's excellent water quality.

The Trust was charged with developing a programme of work that would reduce the amount of manageable nitrogen leaching into the lake by 20 per cent.

The Trust used the funds to encourage and assist land use change, to purchase land/nitrogen in the Lake Taupō catchment and to fund other initiatives that assisted landowners to reduce the nitrogen impact of their activities on Lake Taupō.

A key activity undertaken by the Trust was to enter into nitrogen reduction agreements with catchment landowners. The agreements have a term of 999 years and provide for the purchase of landowner nitrogen allowances and for changes in land use. The Trust entered into the final nitrogen reduction agreement in 2015. Over the 2015 to 2018 period, the Trust completed the remaining annual nitrogen reduction payments and on farm nitrogen reductions were achieved.

The Trust now focuses on monitoring landowner compliance with the agreements and is administered by Taupō District Council.

The Lake Taupō Protection Trust can be contacted on the details below:

Location: 30 Tongariro Street, Taupō 3330
Mailing address: Private Bag 2005, Taupō Mail Centre, Taupō 3352.
Email: ltpt@taupo.govt.nz
Phone: 07 376 3970