Executive Summary
Context
What is the problem?
What is needed?
New Zealand is strongly influenced by rivers. They are central to the identity of many New Zealanders and are highly valued for their scenic and recreational qualities, as well as their economic potential.
New Zealand has many rivers, great and small, and an apparent abundance of fresh water is conveyed by them from the mountains to the sea. Our freshwater biodiversity is unique; 92 per cent of our freshwater fish species are endemic to New Zealand.
Rivers are inherently difficult to manage owing to their dynamic character, length, size of catchment and diversity of values, as well as the many agencies involved in land, water and fisheries management.
The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) provides the primary legislative mechanism for the management of rivers and the water within them. Water conservation orders (WCOs) are the major RMA tool for river protection.
Rivers within public conservation land are perceived to be protected, but the water within them usually is not.
All is not well with New Zealand's rivers and there is increasing public concern about their state.
National demand for fresh water in New Zealand has almost doubled in the decade between 2000 and 2010, for uses such as irrigation, domestic water supply and manufacturing. Demand for energy continues to grow, which means more rivers could be modified to enable hydro-electricity, whether by damming or by diverting water out of a river. The Government aims to have 90 per cent of our electricity generation sourced from renewable sources by 2025.
Water quality in major rivers has declined since 1989, largely attributable to increased agricultural intensification, and the development of farming that is dependent on a reliable supply of water in naturally dry areas.
Declining flows and water quality can adversely affect river health and biodiversity values. Some rivers and streams are now unsuitable for fishing and swimming, and as a source of mahinga kai (food).
Important values and interests in fresh water are not being adequately protected in National Policy Statements and regional plans, despite recent calls for this to happen; particularly from the Land and Water Forum (2010). Examples of these values and interests are the natural character of rivers, recreational use and enjoyment, or the needs of indigenous biodiversity and future generations.
Retired Environment Court Judge David Sheppard summed up the situation as follows:
"Freshwater is being managed in many valuable ways to enable people and communities to provide for their social, economic and cultural wellbeing and for their health and safety.
"But there are important respects in which the management of freshwater is still not conforming to the elements of safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of water and associated ecosystems; is still not safeguarding the potential of freshwater resources to meet future needs; and is not avoiding, remedying or significantly remedying adverse effects on the environment.
"There are shortfalls in the imperatives that are classified as having national importance; in particular those of preserving the natural character of water bodies; of protecting significant indigenous vegetation and significant habitats of indigenous fauna; and of providing for Māori traditional cultural relationship with their ancestral water and taonga (things or places of great value).
"Although there have been many advances, after a couple of decades the management of freshwater does not yet qualify as sustainable in some catchments and some respects."1
The New Zealand Conservation Authority (NZCA) considers that a suite of measures are needed to address the problem.
The outcome sought is comprehensive protection for a representative range of rivers. The set of selected rivers should be genuinely protected in perpetuity in their natural state and should include rivers with outstanding ecological, landscape, scenic, recreational, amenity and cultural characteristics and values.
The NZCA does not seek to protect all rivers everywhere. The challenge is to provide for all interests somewhere and then to respect the decisions that have been made and not subsequently seek to negate or modify those decisions by later relitigation.
The NZCA specifically seeks:
- Government commitment to the protection of rivers
- Specific responsibility and resourcing for achieving such protection allocated to one government agency
- A comprehensive, national strategic approach to secure protection of both outstanding rivers in their natural state and a representative range of rivers
- A stocktake of the extent of river protection to provide baseline information, track progress towards the protection of a representative range of rivers, and determine where additional protection is needed
- The preparation of a national inventory of outstanding rivers and rivers with outstanding characteristics (including biodiversity, landscape, cultural, recreational, amenity) to identify priorities for protection
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More effort to ensure that management mechanisms, including those under the RMA and protected area statutes, adequately provide for the protection of freshwater biodiversity from the adverse effects of activities on land and in water2
- Amendment to the RMA to allow regional councils to use moratoria (similar to those in the Environment Canterbury (Improved Water Management and Temporary Commissioners) Act 2010) to pause consent applications while a river's in-stream values are assessed, flow regimes developed or reviewed, and plans amended; and for water allocation limits in plans to be fixed
- Exploration of opportunities to better protect rivers within protected areas, including giving national park status to rivers including their water within national park boundaries
- The management of Crown riverbeds with conservation values to protect those values
- Enhancement of the use, application and effectiveness of WCOs by relatively small changes to legislation and policy
1 Sheppard David F (October 2010).
2 New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy Objective 2.1