Executive Summary
Towards the end of 2003 the Minister for the Environment challenged local government to demonstrate how council activities and expenditure is addressing the loss of indigenous biodiversity. The Ministry for the Environment, Department of Conservation and Local Government New Zealand embarked on a joint project to collect information to respond to this and inform decisions on the National Policy Statement.
This project reports back on the key findings, which are summarised below.
Financial
- Regional councils surveyed in specific case studies are spending considerable amounts of money on biodiversity. This includes both direct and indirect spending. Much of this is not identified as 'biodiversity' but is spread across a number of functions of council work. We consider this result representative of regional councils in general.
- We have insufficient information to build a national picture of district and city council expenditure (both direct and indirect) on biodiversity in this report. However, contestable fund data indicates that many councils are spending significant amounts on work that directly benefits biodiversity.
Plans
- Some district plans have comprehensive and detailed provisions for the identification of significant sites and habitats. These provisions are backed up by a range of methods to protect the significant sites and habitats identified.
- Other district plans, however, have minimal (or no) identification of sites and lack adequate provisions to ensure protection.
- Most district plans fall into an intermediate level - neither particularly strong nor particularly lacking. A significant proportion of these contain general clearance rules but have no criteria for determining significance.
Capacity
- Many regional councils are working with
landowners and communities to protect and restore biodiversity
values. This is evidenced by:
- the significant investment in contestable funds ($4.26 million per annum) by regional councils alone
- partnerships with the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust to increase the area under covenant.
- For many district and city councils, capacity remains a significant issue. By capacity we mean financial and human resources, which must be spread at times over considerable geographical areas and often a broad range of functions.
Policy tools
There is a wide range of policy tools available to councils. Most councils support on-the-ground activities (eg. covenants, landcare groups, education and advice to landowners) while also using regulations (eg. subdivision controls).
Biosecurity
Biosecurity programmes account for a large amount of council expenditure that impacts both directly and indirectly on biodiversity, including work funded through the Regional Pest Management Strategy and Animal Health Board.
Information/identification
An issue that has emerged is the lack of good-quality information on biodiversity across the country. Some areas are information rich, but many others lack adequate information on biodiversity in their areas.
Enforcement action
There is wide variance in the instruments being used to enforce rules relating to significant indigenous biodiversity. The results show that while some councils have taken a regulatory approach to biodiversity preservation, others still favour a voluntary approach and do not enforce regulation. The figures show that among those councils using regulation there is a wide range of both the frequency and type of enforcement action undertaken.
Legally protected areas for indigenous biodiversity
- Using Land Environments New Zealand Level II, we can see that 37 of 100 environments have less than 20% indigenous vegetation remaining. Of these 37 environments, 24 have less than 10% indigenous vegetation remaining.
- Only one of these 37 environments has more than 10% (11.8%) of its original extent under legal protection.
- The full range of New Zealand's remaining natural habitats and ecosystems is not fully represented on public conservation land.
- Queen Elizabeth II, Nga Whenua Rahui and Department of Conservation covenants on private land cover 0.6% of New Zealand's total area and often protect environments that are under-represented in public conservation land. For this reason they make an important contribution to New Zealand's effort to maintain and restore the full range of New Zealand's remaining natural habitats and ecosystems.
