Board chairman Hoani Langsbury said the issue of freedom camping "has certainly grown legs" since board member Andrew Penniket called for a national ban on campervans at a meeting last week.
"It is our intention to escalate this issue directly to the New Zealand Conservation Authority," Mr Langsbury said.
The authority was best placed to lobby central Government to establish a national strategy about how some travellers used campervans.
A cost-benefit analysis of the rental tourism-campervan industry by the association would go some way to determining the extent of the problem freedom campers "left behind", he said.
The advent of the 2011 Rugby World Cup would "undoubtedly result in a proliferation of campervans" being used by tourists following the tournament, he said.
"You only need to look at how campervan usage soared during the last Lions [rugby] tour," Mr Langsbury said.
The New Zealand Tourism Industry Association has joined the campervan debate, with a press release highlighting the negative effect of freedom camping.
The "unacceptable" behaviour of some freedom campers was affecting the environment and the wellbeing of local communities.
Association advocacy manager Geoff Ensor said more needed to be done by industry players and councils to get the message across to those freedom campers who were "spoiling it for everyone else".
More than 200 New Zealand Motor Caravan Association members will discuss the issue at a congregation being held in Lawrence this weekend to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 370-member Clutha Valley branch.
Association president Dick Waters told the Otago Daily Times he retracted reported comments in which he called for freedom campers to be "shot".
His "unfortunate" comment emphasised the annoyance and depth of contempt he felt towards freedom campers who soiled the New Zealand environment, Mr Waters said.
The country's motorhome owners were being unfairly grouped with "whizz-bang" travellers renting campervans without self-contained toilet facilities, he said.
While unsure of "how quickly" central Government could move on the issue, Mr Langsbury said he hoped a national freedom-camping strategy might be in place before the Rugby World Cup.
Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean said the suggestion of a national ban on campervans was "totally unrealistic and ill-considered".
In a statement this week, Mrs Dean said the Otago Conservation Board's suggestion was quite impractical and, on the brink of the Rugby World Cup when the country was likely to be inundated with visitors using campervans, "quite short-sighted".
"To be frank, I think the Otago Conservation Board has gone too far on this one and, if anything, stands to lose quite a bit of credibility over it."
She accepted road waste was a problem with some campervan users but said better education and more policing of the problem, rather than a ban, was the answer.
- Additional reporting: Sally Rae
