PO Box 91736 Victoria St West, Auckland 1142, New Zealand

Telephone +64 9 480 2565

Email manager@eds.org.nz

Web www.eds.org.nz www.rmaguide.org.nz www.edsconference.com

ProsPectus2014 - 2016

2014-16 in ProsPect

EDS will address key environmental challenges and promote sensible, fair and workable solutions – whilst ensuring that protection of New Zealand’s outstanding environment remains a bottom-line. But we cannot do that without your help!

The environmental reform agenda, regardless of the outcome of the 2014 election, is expected to gather momentum. The new government will have to make further decisions on freshwater and Resource Management Act reforms. The Environmental Protection Authority’s new responsibilities for consenting oil, gas and mining activities in our Exclusive Economic Zone will continue to expand. Government will begin a new approach to environmental reporting. Hearings on Auckland’s proposed unitary plan will commence and the marine spatial plan for the Hauraki Gulf will conclude. And as always, environmental challenges will arise that we don’t even know about yet.

OceansNew Zealand’s oceans are the fifth largest in the world. They are a hugely precious resource and are critically important to our quality of life and economic welfare. They are under stress from fishing, catchment run-off and the effects of global climate change. There are also new pressures from aquaculture, deepwater oil and gas extraction and mining. But the institutional and regulatory

arrangements for our oceans are primitive and lack a strategic approach. Large scale reform is urgently required.

During 2014-16 EDS will continue to ramp up its policy and advocacy work on oceans. Collectively this will cover all aspects of oceans management and will be the biggest piece of policy work we have ever attempted. We have already examined the policy framework for marine mammals protection and marine protected areas. But oil, gas, mining, fishing, aquaculture, shipping and recreational uses all need to be subject to environmental bottom lines that will apply ecological principles to the protection of marine life and will keep our beaches safe. EDS will be working up substantive recommendations for reform in all these areas and across the entire oceans realm. The Oceans Forum will work towards stakeholder agreement on key issues and potential solutions.

Freshwater ManagementThe Land and Water Forum, an EDS initiative, has now completed its substantive work and has recommended a new approach to freshwater management. The Forum’s recommendations are with Government and we are waiting for the progressive roll-out of the reform agenda.

EDS will continue to liaise with colleagues and stakeholders who were engaged in the Forum and will support the Forum’s recommendations. It is vital that we address freshwater quality as a priority and set limits on nutrient runoff. We also need to ensure that sufficient water remains in rivers and streams to support ecological health. We will seek meaningful national objectives as well as engaging in regional policy statement reviews.

Resource Management ActWe expect further reforms to unfold during 2015. There have already been a range of procedural improvements identified that are uncontroversial and could have proceeded during 2014, but the Government opted against that approach. The area that is highly contentious is the proposal to amend sections 6 and 7 of the Act and introduce economic considerations alongside the existing environmental ones. That would effectively lower environmental standards across the country and will be strongly resisted by EDS.

Planning for Auckland’s futureThe Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan will be subject to mediation and hearings over the next few years. This will be the biggest planning exercise ever attempted in New Zealand and is obviously vital for both Auckland’s and New Zealand’s future. Auckland will continue to expand faster than the rest of the country and accomodating that growth, and allowing for economic development, will place stress on the region’s natural resources.

EDS will be a substantive player in the plan-making process and will be focusing its attention on protecting Auckland’s biodversity – both terrestrial and marine, its landscapes and its outstanding coastline.

PublicationsLate in 2014 EDS will be publishing a major policy report entitled Securing our Future: The protection of indigenous biodiversity in New Zealand. We will also be publishing a new book on the Hauraki Gulf. In 2015 we will be working up a report on options for the protection of biodiversity in development, including biodiversity offsetting and will be commencing work on the next stage of our oceans programme. The intention is to undertake a major review of fisheries management and to assess the extent to which it meets international best practice.

our PeoPle

Raewyn Peart is our Policy Director

Gary Taylor is our Executive Director

Fiona Driver is our General Manager and Conference Organiser

Nicola de Wit is our Lawyer

Marie Brown is our Senior Policy Analyst

Lucy Brake is our Contract Writer

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER USING SOY BASED INKS

The Environmental Defence Society (EDS) is a professionally run, independent environmental group that was established in 1971. It brings together the disciplines of science, planning, landscape and the law. It operates as a think-tank, providing thought leadership on key environmental issues as well as representing the environment before councils and the courts.

EDS is located at the collaboratve and business-aware end of the environmental movement, seeking constructive engagement with all sectors, to achieve good environmental and economic outcomes for all New Zealanders. It has influence.

It also plays an education role, helping business, councils, community groups and iwi to better understand best practice resource management. EDS runs national and regional conferences and seminars on topical issues.

EDS is a registered charity and donations to it are tax-deductible.

Message froM the chairMan

It is now more than 40 years since EDS was conceived. We take pride in what EDS has achieved during this time. Our approach of bringing together the disciplines of science and the law remain as relevant now as then. Today we are busier, and facing greater environmental challenges, than ever before.

For 2014-16, as well as continuing our programme of litigation, research, publications, seminars and conferences, we will be focusing on oceans reform. We see this as the biggest issue on New Zealand’s environmental agenda going forward – as big as the land-focused reforms of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

EDS will continue to provide high quality thought-leadership on ways to achieve sound environmental outcomes for our precious oceans; whether it’s managing oil and gas exploration, addressing undersea mining, preventing oil spills, saving threatened species or protecting fish stocks from over-exploitation. We will be seeking to really catalyse the reform process, often through collaboration with others.

A key challenge is of course raising the funds necessary to keep our work going. So this prospectus sets out clearly and concisely what we do and how supporting EDS results in really tangible outcomes for the environment. I commend it to you.

If you are able to help with sponsorship, expertise, bequests or donations please contact us on (09) 480 2565 or email manager@eds.org.nz. You can also make donations online.

There are big challenges ahead. Help us make a difference!

Kind regards

Gary Taylor QSOChairman of the Board

You can join EDS or make a donation online at www.eds.org.nz

EDS seeks to engage with leaders in the business

community on key environmental challenges

facing New Zealand.

EDS has gone from strength to strength over the past 12 months. We have played key roles across a number of environmental challenges with more to come in 2014-16.

RMA ReformsEDS has worked constructively with other environmental and professional groups in leading the debate on ill-considered proposed changes to Part 2 of the Resource Management Act. Those changes, based on faulty legal analysis and hearsay examples, would lower environmental standards across New Zealand. At the same time, we have constructively acknowledged the need for improvements in the plan-making and resource consenting processes. The government has since abandoned its plans to change Part 2 until after the 2014 election.

Protecting our outstanding coastsEDS has continued its strong and focused advocacy for our coasts. This has included opposition to the proposed King Salmon marine farms in the highly scenic and protected outer Marlborough Sounds. We were submitters to the Board of Inquiry and helped to get 5 of the 9 sites thrown out. We then continued our challenge against one of the sites (Port Gore) in the Supreme Court and were succesful there in overturning both the earlier High Court and Board decisions.

Our successful court challenge was based on the directive wording on landscape protection contained in the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement, something which EDS was instrumental in achieving through strong submissions presented to the 2008 Board of Inquiry. Our new guide to coastal management was published in October 2013 and received the 2013 Publications Award from the Resource Management Law Association. The guide synthesises all of our work on coastal development into a best practice guide, repleat with numerous pictorial examples and text.

Oceans: the next frontierThe key publication on oceans in 2013 was Raewyn Peart’s Dolphins of Aotearoa: Living with New Zealand Dolphins. This traces the interactions of people with dolphins through our history and has been well-received by reviewers. It highlights the plight of these intelligent and social marine mammals including that of the critically threatened Maui’s Dolphin. Additional measures have been put in place to protect Maui’s dolphins subsequent to the publication of the book.

EDS was influential in securing improvements to the EEZ legislation and has continued to advocate for best practice in environmental management of our oceans resource. Raewyn Peart was appointed to the Stakeholder Working Group for the Hauraki Gulf Marine Planning Project Seachange. And we held initial meetings of the new Oceans Forum – a stakeholder-based group that will develop ideas for oceans reform through a collaborative process.

FreshwaterDuring 2013 the Land and Water Forum wrapped up its primary task and submitted a completed programme for freshwater reform to the government. The Forum was an EDS initiative and arose out of our 2008 conference. Finally, after some years of deliberations, a package for improved management of freshwater has been agreed between all key stakeholders. We are now focused on implementation and practical improvements at the national and regional levels of government.

CasebookIn addition to making submissions on numerous Bills and national policy instruments, EDS was involved in more than 12 cases during 2013. Significant litigation included the Tukituki catchment proposal, where the Board of Inquiry determined that a dual nutrient management approach was required to protect the health of freshwater, and EDS v King Salmon, where the Supreme Court held that an ‘overall broad judgment’ approach could not be utilised by RMA decision-makers. In addition, EDS continued its focus on regional policy statements, participating in the Bay of Plenty, Waikato, and Northland processes.

a year of success

n ground-breaking precedent decision from the supreme court in King Salmon case

n new protection measures for Bryde’s whales and Maui’s dolphins

n Publication of the award-winning guide Caring for our Coast

n Publication of book Dolphins of Aotearoa

n highly successful Our Place: State of the Environment national conference

n completion of the land and Water forum

n adoption of a dual nutrient approach for the tukituki catchment

n hauraki gulf marine spatial planning initiative underway

n establishment of the oceans forum

n leading the debate on resource Management act reforms

n improving regional policy statements across new Zealand

n continuing strategic litigation

2013 in revieW

The Environmental Defence Society (EDS) is a professionally run, independent environmental group that was established in 1971. It brings together the disciplines of science, planning, landscape and the law. It operates as a think-tank, providing thought leadership on key environmental issues as well as representing the environment before councils and the courts.

EDS is located at the collaboratve and business-aware end of the environmental movement, seeking constructive engagement with all sectors, to achieve good environmental and economic outcomes for all New Zealanders. It has influence.

It also plays an education role, helping business, councils, community groups and iwi to better understand best practice resource management. EDS runs national and regional conferences and seminars on topical issues.

EDS is a registered charity and donations to it are tax-deductible.

Message froM the chairMan

It is now more than 40 years since EDS was conceived. We take pride in what EDS has achieved during this time. Our approach of bringing together the disciplines of science and the law remain as relevant now as then. Today we are busier, and facing greater environmental challenges, than ever before.

For 2014-16, as well as continuing our programme of litigation, research, publications, seminars and conferences, we will be focusing on oceans reform. We see this as the biggest issue on New Zealand’s environmental agenda going forward – as big as the land-focused reforms of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

EDS will continue to provide high quality thought-leadership on ways to achieve sound environmental outcomes for our precious oceans; whether it’s managing oil and gas exploration, addressing undersea mining, preventing oil spills, saving threatened species or protecting fish stocks from over-exploitation. We will be seeking to really catalyse the reform process, often through collaboration with others.

A key challenge is of course raising the funds necessary to keep our work going. So this prospectus sets out clearly and concisely what we do and how supporting EDS results in really tangible outcomes for the environment. I commend it to you.

If you are able to help with sponsorship, expertise, bequests or donations please contact us on (09) 480 2565 or email manager@eds.org.nz. You can also make donations online.

There are big challenges ahead. Help us make a difference!

Kind regards

Gary Taylor QSOChairman of the Board

You can join EDS or make a donation online at www.eds.org.nz

EDS seeks to engage with leaders in the business

community on key environmental challenges

facing New Zealand.

EDS has gone from strength to strength over the past 12 months. We have played key roles across a number of environmental challenges with more to come in 2014-16.

RMA ReformsEDS has worked constructively with other environmental and professional groups in leading the debate on ill-considered proposed changes to Part 2 of the Resource Management Act. Those changes, based on faulty legal analysis and hearsay examples, would lower environmental standards across New Zealand. At the same time, we have constructively acknowledged the need for improvements in the plan-making and resource consenting processes. The government has since abandoned its plans to change Part 2 until after the 2014 election.

Protecting our outstanding coastsEDS has continued its strong and focused advocacy for our coasts. This has included opposition to the proposed King Salmon marine farms in the highly scenic and protected outer Marlborough Sounds. We were submitters to the Board of Inquiry and helped to get 5 of the 9 sites thrown out. We then continued our challenge against one of the sites (Port Gore) in the Supreme Court and were succesful there in overturning both the earlier High Court and Board decisions.

Our successful court challenge was based on the directive wording on landscape protection contained in the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement, something which EDS was instrumental in achieving through strong submissions presented to the 2008 Board of Inquiry. Our new guide to coastal management was published in October 2013 and received the 2013 Publications Award from the Resource Management Law Association. The guide synthesises all of our work on coastal development into a best practice guide, repleat with numerous pictorial examples and text.

Oceans: the next frontierThe key publication on oceans in 2013 was Raewyn Peart’s Dolphins of Aotearoa: Living with New Zealand Dolphins. This traces the interactions of people with dolphins through our history and has been well-received by reviewers. It highlights the plight of these intelligent and social marine mammals including that of the critically threatened Maui’s Dolphin. Additional measures have been put in place to protect Maui’s dolphins subsequent to the publication of the book.

EDS was influential in securing improvements to the EEZ legislation and has continued to advocate for best practice in environmental management of our oceans resource. Raewyn Peart was appointed to the Stakeholder Working Group for the Hauraki Gulf Marine Planning Project Seachange. And we held initial meetings of the new Oceans Forum – a stakeholder-based group that will develop ideas for oceans reform through a collaborative process.

FreshwaterDuring 2013 the Land and Water Forum wrapped up its primary task and submitted a completed programme for freshwater reform to the government. The Forum was an EDS initiative and arose out of our 2008 conference. Finally, after some years of deliberations, a package for improved management of freshwater has been agreed between all key stakeholders. We are now focused on implementation and practical improvements at the national and regional levels of government.

CasebookIn addition to making submissions on numerous Bills and national policy instruments, EDS was involved in more than 12 cases during 2013. Significant litigation included the Tukituki catchment proposal, where the Board of Inquiry determined that a dual nutrient management approach was required to protect the health of freshwater, and EDS v King Salmon, where the Supreme Court held that an ‘overall broad judgment’ approach could not be utilised by RMA decision-makers. In addition, EDS continued its focus on regional policy statements, participating in the Bay of Plenty, Waikato, and Northland processes.

a year of success

n ground-breaking precedent decision from the supreme court in King Salmon case

n new protection measures for Bryde’s whales and Maui’s dolphins

n Publication of the award-winning guide Caring for our Coast

n Publication of book Dolphins of Aotearoa

n highly successful Our Place: State of the Environment national conference

n completion of the land and Water forum

n adoption of a dual nutrient approach for the tukituki catchment

n hauraki gulf marine spatial planning initiative underway

n establishment of the oceans forum

n leading the debate on resource Management act reforms

n improving regional policy statements across new Zealand

n continuing strategic litigation

2013 in revieW

The Environmental Defence Society (EDS) is a professionally run, independent environmental group that was established in 1971. It brings together the disciplines of science, planning, landscape and the law. It operates as a think-tank, providing thought leadership on key environmental issues as well as representing the environment before councils and the courts.

EDS is located at the collaboratve and business-aware end of the environmental movement, seeking constructive engagement with all sectors, to achieve good environmental and economic outcomes for all New Zealanders. It has influence.

It also plays an education role, helping business, councils, community groups and iwi to better understand best practice resource management. EDS runs national and regional conferences and seminars on topical issues.

EDS is a registered charity and donations to it are tax-deductible.

Message froM the chairMan

It is now more than 40 years since EDS was conceived. We take pride in what EDS has achieved during this time. Our approach of bringing together the disciplines of science and the law remain as relevant now as then. Today we are busier, and facing greater environmental challenges, than ever before.

For 2014-16, as well as continuing our programme of litigation, research, publications, seminars and conferences, we will be focusing on oceans reform. We see this as the biggest issue on New Zealand’s environmental agenda going forward – as big as the land-focused reforms of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

EDS will continue to provide high quality thought-leadership on ways to achieve sound environmental outcomes for our precious oceans; whether it’s managing oil and gas exploration, addressing undersea mining, preventing oil spills, saving threatened species or protecting fish stocks from over-exploitation. We will be seeking to really catalyse the reform process, often through collaboration with others.

A key challenge is of course raising the funds necessary to keep our work going. So this prospectus sets out clearly and concisely what we do and how supporting EDS results in really tangible outcomes for the environment. I commend it to you.

If you are able to help with sponsorship, expertise, bequests or donations please contact us on (09) 480 2565 or email manager@eds.org.nz. You can also make donations online.

There are big challenges ahead. Help us make a difference!

Kind regards

Gary Taylor QSOChairman of the Board

You can join EDS or make a donation online at www.eds.org.nz

EDS seeks to engage with leaders in the business

community on key environmental challenges

facing New Zealand.

EDS has gone from strength to strength over the past 12 months. We have played key roles across a number of environmental challenges with more to come in 2014-16.

RMA ReformsEDS has worked constructively with other environmental and professional groups in leading the debate on ill-considered proposed changes to Part 2 of the Resource Management Act. Those changes, based on faulty legal analysis and hearsay examples, would lower environmental standards across New Zealand. At the same time, we have constructively acknowledged the need for improvements in the plan-making and resource consenting processes. The government has since abandoned its plans to change Part 2 until after the 2014 election.

Protecting our outstanding coastsEDS has continued its strong and focused advocacy for our coasts. This has included opposition to the proposed King Salmon marine farms in the highly scenic and protected outer Marlborough Sounds. We were submitters to the Board of Inquiry and helped to get 5 of the 9 sites thrown out. We then continued our challenge against one of the sites (Port Gore) in the Supreme Court and were succesful there in overturning both the earlier High Court and Board decisions.

Our successful court challenge was based on the directive wording on landscape protection contained in the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement, something which EDS was instrumental in achieving through strong submissions presented to the 2008 Board of Inquiry. Our new guide to coastal management was published in October 2013 and received the 2013 Publications Award from the Resource Management Law Association. The guide synthesises all of our work on coastal development into a best practice guide, repleat with numerous pictorial examples and text.

Oceans: the next frontierThe key publication on oceans in 2013 was Raewyn Peart’s Dolphins of Aotearoa: Living with New Zealand Dolphins. This traces the interactions of people with dolphins through our history and has been well-received by reviewers. It highlights the plight of these intelligent and social marine mammals including that of the critically threatened Maui’s Dolphin. Additional measures have been put in place to protect Maui’s dolphins subsequent to the publication of the book.

EDS was influential in securing improvements to the EEZ legislation and has continued to advocate for best practice in environmental management of our oceans resource. Raewyn Peart was appointed to the Stakeholder Working Group for the Hauraki Gulf Marine Planning Project Seachange. And we held initial meetings of the new Oceans Forum – a stakeholder-based group that will develop ideas for oceans reform through a collaborative process.

FreshwaterDuring 2013 the Land and Water Forum wrapped up its primary task and submitted a completed programme for freshwater reform to the government. The Forum was an EDS initiative and arose out of our 2008 conference. Finally, after some years of deliberations, a package for improved management of freshwater has been agreed between all key stakeholders. We are now focused on implementation and practical improvements at the national and regional levels of government.

CasebookIn addition to making submissions on numerous Bills and national policy instruments, EDS was involved in more than 12 cases during 2013. Significant litigation included the Tukituki catchment proposal, where the Board of Inquiry determined that a dual nutrient management approach was required to protect the health of freshwater, and EDS v King Salmon, where the Supreme Court held that an ‘overall broad judgment’ approach could not be utilised by RMA decision-makers. In addition, EDS continued its focus on regional policy statements, participating in the Bay of Plenty, Waikato, and Northland processes.

a year of success

n ground-breaking precedent decision from the supreme court in King Salmon case

n new protection measures for Bryde’s whales and Maui’s dolphins

n Publication of the award-winning guide Caring for our Coast

n Publication of book Dolphins of Aotearoa

n highly successful Our Place: State of the Environment national conference

n completion of the land and Water forum

n adoption of a dual nutrient approach for the tukituki catchment

n hauraki gulf marine spatial planning initiative underway

n establishment of the oceans forum

n leading the debate on resource Management act reforms

n improving regional policy statements across new Zealand

n continuing strategic litigation

2013 in revieW

PO Box 91736 Victoria St West, Auckland 1142, New Zealand

Telephone +64 9 480 2565

Email manager@eds.org.nz

Web www.eds.org.nz www.rmaguide.org.nz www.edsconference.com

ProsPectus2014 - 2016

2014-16 in ProsPect

EDS will address key environmental challenges and promote sensible, fair and workable solutions – whilst ensuring that protection of New Zealand’s outstanding environment remains a bottom-line. But we cannot do that without your help!

The environmental reform agenda, regardless of the outcome of the 2014 election, is expected to gather momentum. The new government will have to make further decisions on freshwater and Resource Management Act reforms. The Environmental Protection Authority’s new responsibilities for consenting oil, gas and mining activities in our Exclusive Economic Zone will continue to expand. Government will begin a new approach to environmental reporting. Hearings on Auckland’s proposed unitary plan will commence and the marine spatial plan for the Hauraki Gulf will conclude. And as always, environmental challenges will arise that we don’t even know about yet.

OceansNew Zealand’s oceans are the fifth largest in the world. They are a hugely precious resource and are critically important to our quality of life and economic welfare. They are under stress from fishing, catchment run-off and the effects of global climate change. There are also new pressures from aquaculture, deepwater oil and gas extraction and mining. But the institutional and regulatory

arrangements for our oceans are primitive and lack a strategic approach. Large scale reform is urgently required.

During 2014-16 EDS will continue to ramp up its policy and advocacy work on oceans. Collectively this will cover all aspects of oceans management and will be the biggest piece of policy work we have ever attempted. We have already examined the policy framework for marine mammals protection and marine protected areas. But oil, gas, mining, fishing, aquaculture, shipping and recreational uses all need to be subject to environmental bottom lines that will apply ecological principles to the protection of marine life and will keep our beaches safe. EDS will be working up substantive recommendations for reform in all these areas and across the entire oceans realm. The Oceans Forum will work towards stakeholder agreement on key issues and potential solutions.

Freshwater ManagementThe Land and Water Forum, an EDS initiative, has now completed its substantive work and has recommended a new approach to freshwater management. The Forum’s recommendations are with Government and we are waiting for the progressive roll-out of the reform agenda.

EDS will continue to liaise with colleagues and stakeholders who were engaged in the Forum and will support the Forum’s recommendations. It is vital that we address freshwater quality as a priority and set limits on nutrient runoff. We also need to ensure that sufficient water remains in rivers and streams to support ecological health. We will seek meaningful national objectives as well as engaging in regional policy statement reviews.

Resource Management ActWe expect further reforms to unfold during 2015. There have already been a range of procedural improvements identified that are uncontroversial and could have proceeded during 2014, but the Government opted against that approach. The area that is highly contentious is the proposal to amend sections 6 and 7 of the Act and introduce economic considerations alongside the existing environmental ones. That would effectively lower environmental standards across the country and will be strongly resisted by EDS.

Planning for Auckland’s futureThe Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan will be subject to mediation and hearings over the next few years. This will be the biggest planning exercise ever attempted in New Zealand and is obviously vital for both Auckland’s and New Zealand’s future. Auckland will continue to expand faster than the rest of the country and accomodating that growth, and allowing for economic development, will place stress on the region’s natural resources.

EDS will be a substantive player in the plan-making process and will be focusing its attention on protecting Auckland’s biodversity – both terrestrial and marine, its landscapes and its outstanding coastline.

PublicationsLate in 2014 EDS will be publishing a major policy report entitled Securing our Future: The protection of indigenous biodiversity in New Zealand. We will also be publishing a new book on the Hauraki Gulf. In 2015 we will be working up a report on options for the protection of biodiversity in development, including biodiversity offsetting and will be commencing work on the next stage of our oceans programme. The intention is to undertake a major review of fisheries management and to assess the extent to which it meets international best practice.

our PeoPle

Raewyn Peart is our Policy Director

Gary Taylor is our Executive Director

Fiona Driver is our General Manager and Conference Organiser

Nicola de Wit is our Lawyer

Marie Brown is our Senior Policy Analyst

Lucy Brake is our Contract Writer

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER USING SOY BASED INKS

PO Box 91736 Victoria St West, Auckland 1142, New Zealand

Telephone +64 9 480 2565

Email manager@eds.org.nz

Web www.eds.org.nz www.rmaguide.org.nz www.edsconference.com

ProsPectus2014 - 2016

2014-16 in ProsPect

EDS will address key environmental challenges and promote sensible, fair and workable solutions – whilst ensuring that protection of New Zealand’s outstanding environment remains a bottom-line. But we cannot do that without your help!

The environmental reform agenda, regardless of the outcome of the 2014 election, is expected to gather momentum. The new government will have to make further decisions on freshwater and Resource Management Act reforms. The Environmental Protection Authority’s new responsibilities for consenting oil, gas and mining activities in our Exclusive Economic Zone will continue to expand. Government will begin a new approach to environmental reporting. Hearings on Auckland’s proposed unitary plan will commence and the marine spatial plan for the Hauraki Gulf will conclude. And as always, environmental challenges will arise that we don’t even know about yet.

OceansNew Zealand’s oceans are the fifth largest in the world. They are a hugely precious resource and are critically important to our quality of life and economic welfare. They are under stress from fishing, catchment run-off and the effects of global climate change. There are also new pressures from aquaculture, deepwater oil and gas extraction and mining. But the institutional and regulatory

arrangements for our oceans are primitive and lack a strategic approach. Large scale reform is urgently required.

During 2014-16 EDS will continue to ramp up its policy and advocacy work on oceans. Collectively this will cover all aspects of oceans management and will be the biggest piece of policy work we have ever attempted. We have already examined the policy framework for marine mammals protection and marine protected areas. But oil, gas, mining, fishing, aquaculture, shipping and recreational uses all need to be subject to environmental bottom lines that will apply ecological principles to the protection of marine life and will keep our beaches safe. EDS will be working up substantive recommendations for reform in all these areas and across the entire oceans realm. The Oceans Forum will work towards stakeholder agreement on key issues and potential solutions.

Freshwater ManagementThe Land and Water Forum, an EDS initiative, has now completed its substantive work and has recommended a new approach to freshwater management. The Forum’s recommendations are with Government and we are waiting for the progressive roll-out of the reform agenda.

EDS will continue to liaise with colleagues and stakeholders who were engaged in the Forum and will support the Forum’s recommendations. It is vital that we address freshwater quality as a priority and set limits on nutrient runoff. We also need to ensure that sufficient water remains in rivers and streams to support ecological health. We will seek meaningful national objectives as well as engaging in regional policy statement reviews.

Resource Management ActWe expect further reforms to unfold during 2015. There have already been a range of procedural improvements identified that are uncontroversial and could have proceeded during 2014, but the Government opted against that approach. The area that is highly contentious is the proposal to amend sections 6 and 7 of the Act and introduce economic considerations alongside the existing environmental ones. That would effectively lower environmental standards across the country and will be strongly resisted by EDS.

Planning for Auckland’s futureThe Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan will be subject to mediation and hearings over the next few years. This will be the biggest planning exercise ever attempted in New Zealand and is obviously vital for both Auckland’s and New Zealand’s future. Auckland will continue to expand faster than the rest of the country and accomodating that growth, and allowing for economic development, will place stress on the region’s natural resources.

EDS will be a substantive player in the plan-making process and will be focusing its attention on protecting Auckland’s biodversity – both terrestrial and marine, its landscapes and its outstanding coastline.

PublicationsLate in 2014 EDS will be publishing a major policy report entitled Securing our Future: The protection of indigenous biodiversity in New Zealand. We will also be publishing a new book on the Hauraki Gulf. In 2015 we will be working up a report on options for the protection of biodiversity in development, including biodiversity offsetting and will be commencing work on the next stage of our oceans programme. The intention is to undertake a major review of fisheries management and to assess the extent to which it meets international best practice.

our PeoPle

Raewyn Peart is our Policy Director

Gary Taylor is our Executive Director

Fiona Driver is our General Manager and Conference Organiser

Nicola de Wit is our Lawyer

Marie Brown is our Senior Policy Analyst

Lucy Brake is our Contract Writer

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER USING SOY BASED INKS