Resource management law has a direct impact on whether nature in Aotearoa thrives or declines. The government is overhauling resource management with two new bills - the Planning Bill and the Natural Environment Bill - set to replace the current Resource Management Act 1991.
Forest & Bird is encouraging anyone who cares about te taiao nature to make a submission – we want to make sure nature has a voice in this process. We can already see some significant risks for nature if the bills proceed as introduced.
We have written a guide to help you with your submission. Submissions on the two bills are due on 13 February.
Submit on the Planning Bill
Submit on the Natural Environment Bill
Watch the webinar
Key submission points
The Bills must help New Zealand to mitigate carbon emissions and safely adapt to the impacts of climate change
- We are living in a climate emergency. The Bills will influence where and how we develop land for housing, whether we continue to mine for coal, and many other climate-impacting activities. Yet the Bills deliberately exclude these activities’ impacts on the climate, and do not integrate with out 2050 target or Emissions Reduction Plans. The Bills must be changed to place climate impacts at the centre of planning and decision-making.
- Climate adaptation is barely mentioned in the Bills: nature-based solutions to the climate crisis along with safe and environmentally sound adaptation to sea level rise and extreme weather events are essential.
Protection of Aotearoa New Zealand's unique biodiversity must be prioritised
- The Bills include a goal of no net loss of biodiversity, and require ecosystem health limits to be set and achieved. The Bills also provide for significant natural areas to be identified in spatial plans. The provision for significant natural areas is strongly supported as a clear and effective way to protect biodiversity and give clarity to landowners. While these measures are great starting points, nature in Aotearoa needs restoration and active protection, not just “no net loss”.
- The goals and limits are undermined by exceptions and departures, a lack of integration across the two Bills, and sequencing of planning - with ecosystem health limits set after spatial plans are created, meaning that development may be planned for (and effectively allowed) without first knowing whether the environment can sustain it.
- The requirement for Councils to compensate landowners where biodiversity rules apply to their land creates a major risk that cash-strapped Councils choose not to protect significant natural areas. The regulatory takings concept should be removed, or the Bills should make clear that identifying areas that are important for biodiversity must not be influenced by the cost of compensating landowners.
Kaitiakitanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi
- In the past, legal requirements to provide for the relationship of Māori with their ancestral lands, water, sites, wāhi tapu, and other taonga as a matter of national importance have been instrumental in protecting significant environmental values.
- The Bills’ narrow approach to Te Tiriti o Waitangi / the Treaty of Waitangi does not uphold the Crown’s obligations under the Treaty. The Bills must be changed to meaningfully provide for partnership, active protection, rangatiratanga and the exercise of kaitiakitanga.
People and communities must be enabled to contribute to the policies and plans that affect them and the natural environment
- National-level decisions will strongly shape local planning, so good public participation opportunities and robust processes at the national level are critical. National policies and standards should be prepared by an independent Board of Inquiry, not Ministers. Timeframes for the first plans are too short for meaningful community and Māori engagement.
- Opportunities to participate in local plans should be enhanced – hearings and appeals to the Environment Court are essential.
- The threshold for participating in consent processes is too high: effects on the environment must be “significant” for a consent application to be publicly notified. This threshold should be lowered, to provide a voice for nature wherever effects are more than minor.
Landscapes and green spaces are part of our identity and the liveability of our cities
- Development’s effects on landscapes cannot be considered by decision-makers, except where the effect is on an outstanding natural feature or landscape. The landscapes of Aotearoa are central to our identity and to many important industries like tourism and film. Effects on landscape are important, even where the landscape is not “outstanding”.
- Nature in cities is important too – development should not be at the expense of urban trees, green spaces, light and shade or produce poor urban design outcomes that reduce the liveability of our cities. The Bills would almost entirely remove any consideration of these matters.
More permitted activities and less consents requires careful monitoring to avoid environmental harm
- Activities should only be permitted where there is no risk of breaching environmental limits or causing other cumulative effects on the environment.
- Councils must be properly resourced to monitor permitted activities.
Water Conservation Orders live on, but the Environment Court is excluded
- It is great to see the Bills provide for WCOs to be created for Aotearoa’s outstanding waterbodies.
- However, the Environment Court’s role in making recommendations about WCOs should be retained – the Court’s processes and skills are essential for good decisions.
Where is the Minister of Conservation…?
- The Bills would see regional councils granting wildlife permits. This is the Minister of Conservation’s role under the Wildlife Act. This late addition to the Bills must be deleted.
- Currently, the Minister of Conservation has an important role in the preparation of policies and plans for the coastal marine area – but this is removed by the Bills. The Bills should be amended to give the Minister of Conservation back this role.
Submit on the two bills before 13 February 2026.
Submit on the Planning Bill
Submit on the Natural Environment Bill