What does no net loss of river extent mean in practice – exploring the tension between Policy 7 and Regulation 57
Authors: Justine Quinn, Technical Director Freshwater Science & Ecology, Tonkin + Taylor; Mark Lowe, Principal Scientist, Morphum Environmental; Hannah Thomson, Principal Planner/Director, Planning Plus
In 2020, the Ministry for the Environment released the latest version of the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS FM). Building on earlier versions, this version of the NPS FM was, for the first time, supported by national legislation – the Resource Management (National Environmental Standards for Freshwater) Regulations 2020 (NES F).
The intention of the NPS FM and NES F was to provide for nationally consistent direction in respect of freshwater environments, acknowledging that New Zealand has significant issues with water quality and ecosystem health and that previous policy and regulation, and a lack of integration, had not addressed these.
Since its promulgation, the provisions of the NPS FM and NES F have caused a bit of a stir, so much so that updated versions were released in December 2022 and February 2023 (albeit that the NPS FM retained its 2020 name). Much of the focus has been related to the workability of the provisions in respect of wetlands and, as a result, some of the new provisions related to rivers (defined in the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) as “a continually or intermittently flowing body of fresh water; and includes a stream and modified watercourse; but does not include any artificial watercourse…”) may have slipped under the radar. Those river provisions are the focus of this article.