Mount Taranaki, now officially known by its Māori name Taranaki Maunga, has been granted legal personhood by the New Zealand government, giving it the same rights, powers, duties and responsibilities as a human.

The decision is part of an agreement with the indigenous Māori tribes, who consider the 2,518m (8,261ft) peak an ancestor. Under the law, Taranaki Maunga, including its surrounding peaks and land, is recognised as “a living and indivisible whole”.

A governing entity, Te Kāhui Tupua, will act as the mountain’s legal voice, comprising four members from local Māori iwi (tribes) and four appointed by the government. This status strengthens protections for the mountain, ensuring its wellbeing is upheld.

The legal recognition also acknowledges the mountain’s theft from the Māori of the Taranaki region after New Zealand was colonised and fulfils an agreement of reparation from the country’s government to indigenous people for harms perpetrated against the land since.

The mountain joins Te Urewera, a vast native forest on the North Island, and the Whanganui River in being recognised as people under law.