A Statutory Acknowledgement is a formal recognition by the Crown of the mana of tangata whenua over a specified area. It recognises the particular cultural, spiritual, historical and traditional association of an iwi with the site, which is identified as a Statutory Area.
Statements of statutory acknowledgements are set out in Treaty of Waitangi settlement legislation.
Statutory Areas only relate to Crown-owned land and include areas of land, geographic features, lakes, rivers, wetlands, and coastal marine areas.
Gisborne District Council must have regard to statutory acknowledgements relating to a statutory area in deciding, under section 95E of the Resource Management Act 1991, whether the trustee is an affected person in respect of an application for a resource consent for an activity within, adjacent to, or that directly affects the statutory area.
