Credit Kirk Serpes
Forest & Bird is appalled that the key regional tool to improve water quality in Southland – farm plans – is being deferred by the Government.
The Government has announced it is overriding the requirement for farmers in Southland to adopt a farm plan to manage effects on water quality, despite the requirements for these plans being locally developed with support from farming representatives.
Although the requirement to adopt a farm plan has been signalled for a decade – and Forest & Bird participated in the development of the farm plan requirements in the Southland Water and Land Plan – the Government has decided farmers should not be affected by “unreasonable regional farm plan deadlines”.
The Government previously announced that it was suspending the need for farm plans based on national regulations, because it favours a “fit-for-purpose freshwater farm plan system” that enables farmers and growers “to find the right solutions for their farm and catchment.”
In Southland, “fit-for-purpose” farm plan requirements have been developed with input from farming and environmental groups over the past 10 years, and farm plans became a requirement of the regional plan this year. Farmers who did not prepare a farm plan would need to apply for resource consent.
Acting General Counsel for Forest & Bird, Erika Toleman, says “There is nothing unreasonable about requiring compliance with a regional plan rule that has been developed over a decade, and which farmers have helped develop.”
Many Southland rivers, lagoons and estuaries are highly degraded, and this is having impacts on native species as well as recreational and cultural uses. The Southland farm plan requirements are focussed on Southland, targeting the types of farming activities and the environmental issues that Southland in particular is experiencing.
“Direct government interference with the outcome of a regional planning process is unprecedented, and significant overreach. And there is no apparent consideration of what this means for Southland water quality,” says Ms Toleman.