Ngāi Tahu Calls for Tougher Export Laws as Stolen Pounamu Black Market Grows Online

The landmark conviction of a mother and son caught with nearly 18 kilograms of pounamu at Auckland Airport has shone a light on a growing black market for New Zealand’s most treasured stone — and the iwi whose ownership of it is enshrined in law says the problem has been building for years with insufficient tools to stop it.

Boyuan Zhang and his mother Xin Li were found guilty in Manukau District Court of attempting to illegally export pounamu to China, the first successful prosecution of its kind by New Zealand Customs. The pair were stopped at Auckland International Airport in July 2024 with 17.9 kilograms of the greenstone in their luggage — more than three times the legal limit of five kilograms permitted for export without ministerial approval.

Judge Richard McIlraith acknowledged the defendants may not have fully understood the law, but made clear that ignorance of it was no defence. He found Zhang and Li had been “casual and cavalier” in their attitude to the export restrictions. The case is the first successful prosecution under the Customs Export Prohibition (Pounamu) Order 2021, a law that has existed for nearly twenty-five years with little enforcement success.

Under the Ngāi Tahu (Pounamu Vesting) Act 1997, Ngāi Tahu holds legal ownership of all naturally occurring pounamu within tribal boundaries. The stone, also known as greenstone or jade, holds deep cultural and spiritual significance for the iwi and for Aotearoa New Zealand as a whole. Its extraction from rivers and coastal areas by non-iwi members without a permit is prohibited, with public fossicking permitted only on West Coast beaches and limited to hand-sized stones.

The conviction has been welcomed by Ngāi Tahu, but the iwi says it does not come close to addressing the scale of the problem. Pounamu manager Chantal Tumahai told 1News that the number of sellers trading pounamu online with no connection to Ngāi Tahu had been growing significantly. The iwi has noticed suspicious listings across TradeMe, Facebook Marketplace, and Etsy, though verifying the legal sourcing for each of them is difficult with the staffing resources currently available.

Francois Tumahai, chair of Ngāti Waewae — one of the West Coast hapū most directly affected by illegal fossicking — was blunt about the situation. “The black market’s rife and pounamu leaving this country is not new,” he told 1News. He believes alluvial gold miners are among those stealing and selling the stone, and that the problem extends well beyond opportunistic tourists caught at the border.

The scale of the trade has been documented by West Coast hapū. Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Waewae has said stolen pounamu is the second-largest commodity traded for drugs on the West Coast, after cash — a figure that reflects how entrenched illegal trafficking has become in some communities.

Susan Wallace, a representative of Ngāti Māhaki ki Makaawhio, said the conviction of Zhang and Li sent an important signal. “It does serve as a warning that attempts to export pounamu without permission can be prosecuted,” she told RNZ. But she was quick to point out that the current five-kilogram export limit was not working as an adequate deterrent, and called for the threshold to be lowered significantly. She noted the limit could be circumvented by distributing the weight of pounamu across multiple travellers.

Shane Lang of Mawhera Incorporation echoed that concern, telling 1News he believed the export laws needed work and were “quite loose” as they currently stood. Critics argue that the legal framework was designed for a different era and has not kept pace with the growth in international demand, particularly from China where pounamu is highly valued and commands strong prices.

What makes the situation particularly frustrating for Ngāi Tahu is the persistent enforcement gap. The iwi has been seeking compliance powers for more than twenty years — the ability to impose fines on illegal fossickers and conduct independent inspections of mining sites without having to coordinate with police, Customs, and local councils for each case. Without those powers, the iwi is largely reliant on other agencies to act, which slows the response and leaves many offenders without consequence.

Ngāi Tahu does have one significant tool in place. The iwi operates an authentication system for its own legitimately sourced pounamu, assigning each piece a unique eight-digit code that allows buyers to verify its provenance. Authentic Ngāi Tahu Pounamu carries these codes along with iwi trademarks. Buyers who encounter pounamu being sold without these markings — particularly in large quantities or through informal online channels — are encouraged to treat it with suspicion and report concerns to the iwi or to New Zealand Customs.

The prosecution of Zhang and Li has prompted fresh calls from within Ngāi Tahu for the Government to revisit the export regulations and give the iwi the enforcement tools it has long sought. As online marketplaces expand and international demand for the stone grows, advocates warn that landmark court cases alone will not be enough to protect one of New Zealand’s most culturally significant natural taonga.

What do you think should be done to protect pounamu from theft and illegal export? Share your thoughts in the comments below.