Taranaki Maunga and his companion peaks will soon be viewed legally as a person by the name of Te Kāhui Tupua when the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill becomes law at the end of the month.

Earlier this week, New Zealand’s Department of Conservation put out the call for four traditional owners to sit on the panel alongside four Crown representatives who would represent Mount Taranaki.

The area, on NZ’s south island, has become increasingly popular with tourists who flock to the mountain to take in the dormant stratovolcano’s breathtaking facade.

Under the new law, any person who harms or mistreats the mountain will be legally prosecuted the same way they would if they had harmed a tribe.

Mount Taranaki holds significant cultural importance to local tribes, and it is also the most frequently climbed mountain in the country.

The Crown agreed to give up ownership of the land two years ago, with the panel known as Te Tōpuni Kōkōrangi given responsibility for caretaking the mountain range.

This isn’t the first time the New Zealand government has granted personhood to a landmark, with the Whanganui River in the North Island of New Zealand previously being granted legal personhood.

The Department of Conservation has explained that the purpose of the panel 'is to be the human face and voice' of the mountain range.

On January 30, The Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill will officially recognise the peaks as ancestral mountains which will grant the land human status.

Once this occurs, the mountain will officially own itself, and the park will be renamed Te Papa-Kura o Taranaki.