Whanganui

Declared in 1986, Whanganui protects dense temperate rainforest along the river of the same name, which in 2017 became the first river in the world to be granted its own legal personality, recognised in law as an indivisible living being with rights, duties and responsibilities equivalent to a person's, after 140 years of legal claim by the local Māori iwi Whanganui, for whom the river is a living ancestor and not a mere natural resource.