- through involving tangata whenua
- working with tangata whenua and communities to set out long-term visions in the regional policy statement
- prioritising the health and wellbeing of water bodies, then the essential needs of people, followed by other uses.
- two additional values - threatened species and mahinga kai - join ecosystem health and human health for recreation, as compulsory values
- councils must develop plan objectives that describe the environmental outcome sought for all values (including an objective for each of the five individual components of ecosystem health)
- new attributes, aimed specifically at providing for ecosystem health, include fish index of biotic integrity (IBI), sediment, macroinvertebrates (MCI and QMCI), dissolved oxygen, ecosystem metabolism and submerged plants in lakes; councils will have to develop action plans and/or set limits on resource use to achieve these attributes.
- tougher national bottom lines for the ammonia and nitrate toxicity attributes to protect 95% of species from toxic effects (up from 80%)
The above list is not exhaustive.
The Freshwater NPS is one of four pieces of national direction for managing New Zealand’s freshwater.
Local authorities are also required to give effect to:
- National Environmental Standards for Freshwater
- Stock exclusion regulations
- Water measurement and reporting regulations.
National Environmental Standards for Freshwater
The National Environmental Standards for Freshwater (NES-F) contain provisions to manage the conversion of land to dairy farm land, including conditions on granting consents.
The conversion of land on a farm to dairy farm land is a permitted activity, provided the area of land in dairy farm use is either:
- no greater than 10 hectares total (if the farm was not previously in dairy farm), or
- no greater than the area that was used as dairy farm at 2 September 2020 plus 10 hectares.
Where these area restrictions cannot be met, a consent is required. A consent can only be granted if the conversion will not result in an increase in contaminant loads in the catchment, freshwater or other receiving environments, compared to concentrations in September 2020.
Timeframe
No change has been made to the self-repeal clause for these provisions which expire on 1 January 2025, although councils now have a three-year extension to December 2027 for notifying their freshwater plans.
The provisions were intended to provide interim intensification controls until regional councils could give full effect to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 (NPS-FM 2020) in their freshwater plans (originally due to be notified by 31 December 2024), including setting more certain limits and rules through the National Objectives Framework (NOF) process.
Material incorporated by reference
Certified copies of documents incorporated by reference into the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 (Freshwater NPS 2020). The documents, or the specified parts of these documents, have the same legal effect as the Freshwater NPS 2020.
The chief executive of the Ministry for the Environment has certified these copies as correct.
National List of Exotic Pasture Species
The national list of exotic pasture species presents the full list of exotic pasture species in Aotearoa New Zealand that may be considered under clause (e)(ii) of the natural inland wetland definition.
Pasture Exclusion Assessment Methodology
This guide presents the New Zealand national pasture exclusion assessment tool. The tool was developed to identify wetlands in areas of pasture used for grazing that do not meet the definition of ‘natural inland wetland’ under the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management and associated regulations.
SmartGrowth Urban Form and Transport Initiative Connected Centres Programme
The Urban Form and Transport Initiative (UFTI) programme business case was prepared by the SmartGrowth Partners to set out an integrated land use and transport programme, and delivery plan for the western Bay of Plenty. The document incorporated by reference to the NPS-FM is the final report, published July 2020.
Wetland delineation protocols
The Wetland Delineation Protocols give a robust method for delineating wetlands based on the United States delineation system. The Freshwater NPS 2020 requires regional councils to have regard to this protocol in cases of uncertainty or dispute about the existence or extent of a natural wetland. This protocol uses three criteria for identifying and delineating wetlands: vegetation, soils, and hydrology. The vegetation and soils components have been adapted to New Zealand conditions and the hydrological component is currently under development.
New Zealand threat classification manual
The New Zealand Threat Classification System provides a tool for assigning a threat status to candidate taxa. The classification system has been developed to apply equally to terrestrial, freshwater and marine biota. In the Freshwater NPS 2020, the manual is used in the definition of “threatened species” for indigenous species of flora or fauna that rely on water bodies for at least part of their life-cycle.
River Environment Classification System
The River Environment Classification (REC) System groups rivers and parts of river networks that share similar characteristics, including physical and biological. Rivers that share the same class can be treated as similar to one another and different to rivers in other classes. The REC system groups rivers according to several environmental factors that strongly influence or cause the rivers’ physical and ecological characteristics (climate, topography, geology and land cover). In the Freshwater NPS 2020 it is used in the definition of “specified rivers and lakes” and the sediment attributes’ classification shown in Appendix 2C.
New Zealand river environment classification user guide
This user guide defines the composition of the River Environment Classification’s climate, source-of-flow (topography), and geology values that make up the sediment attributes classification system.
A user guide for the Macroinvertebrate Community Index
This report provides an expert view on best-practice use of the Macroinvertebrate Community Index (MCI) for monitoring and reporting on stream health in New Zealand. It contains advice on appropriate application of the MCI in different stream environments, design of monitoring programmes and data analyses (including trend detection).
Macroinvertebrate metrics for the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management
This report explores the relationship between macroinvertebrate measures (current and new) and ecosystem health, to develop metrics that can be used when making management and restoration decisions about New Zealand streams. Benthic macroinvertebrates (aquatic insects) are a widely used indicator of freshwater ecosystem health as they respond to human pressures, are taxonomically diverse, and easy to sample.
New Zealand fish passage guidelines
This guidance document sets out recommended practice for the design of instream infrastructure to provide for fish passage and to set the foundation for the improvement of fish passage management in New Zealand.
Sediment assessment methods
This report describes methods used to assess deposited sediment including the SAM2 method that is prescribed in Table 14 of Appendix 2B of the Freshwater NPS 2020.
Average score per metric: An alternative metric aggregation method for assessing wadeable stream health
This report describes the method used to calculate the ASPM indicator score that is prescribed in Table 15 of Appendix 2B of the Freshwater NPS 2020.
