The 2020 National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) directs local government, in discussion with communities and mana whenua, to set objectives and limits for freshwater quality and quantity, including consideration of downstream receiving environments (such as estuaries). This could include provisions for specific indicators or targets for maintenance or restoration of estuary health. In many councils, this required breaking up the region into distinct catchment clusters to allow for place based values and visions to be incorporated into the process.
The challenge in this process was to communicate complex science and uncertainty with the community, including the connectiveness of activities on land, current river health and the cumulative impacts observed in estuaries downstream. This involved understanding the vision and values of the communities and linking these back to environmental indicators and possible changes on land required to protect and restore rivers, lakes and estuaries in the region.
Alongside freshwater and land use policy mechanisms, there are also non-regulatory levers, including incentive-based mechanisms, to support environmental outcomes. This presentation will provide an overview of the process, challenges, successes and visions to date towards the New Zealand NPS-FM from a range of regional council perspectives.