The urban community and natural resources: Possibilities and problems for natural conservation in a closely settled area.

The distribution of parks and reserves in the Canterbury Land District is outlined, and attention is drawn to the predominance of forest and mountain vegetation within the present network of nature conservation.
Other natural communities in the land district are then described, and their potential as ecological or scientific reserves is reviewed. In this paper, emphasis is placed on some of the lesser-known communities that still survive in the closely settled environment of the Canterbury Plains. The problems associated with the acquisition and maintenance of reserves are briefly discussed.