Councils no longer have to comply with Significant Natural Area provisions

Thursday, 14 March 2024

Andrew Hoggard has announced councils no longer have to comply with SNA provisions.

Councils no longer have to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity while government replaces the Resource Management Act.

SNAs, introduced under the Act in 1991, designated councils in charge of identifying areas with significant habitats and biodiversity - places where there are rare or threatened plants or wildlife - and protecting them.

They were contentious in recent years insofar as they related to private property, having the effect of curbing development or activities, with critics saying conservation regulations were too onerous. There was also disparity across councils as to what constituted “significant”.

Significant Natural Areas sought to identify and protect areas of biodiversity, and where endangered wildlife and plants were present.

In announcing the three year suspension on SNA compliance today, Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard said the regulations represented, “a confiscation of property rights and undermine conservation efforts by the people who care most about the environment: the people who make a living from it.”

As well, as part of the ACT-National coalition agreement, the Government committed to ceasing the implementation of new SNAs as part of the ACT-National coalition agreement.

“For now, the Government has agreed to suspend the obligation for councils to impose SNAs under the NPS Indigenous Biodiversity, and we’re sending a clear message that it would be unwise to bother,” said Hoggard.

“The Government is proposing to make the changes as quickly as possible to ensure councils and communities do not waste resources and effort implementing national direction requirements that may change following a review.

“I have also asked for a review of the operation of existing SNAs more broadly, including those implemented under the powers that councils have in the RMA. This review is being scoped now.”

That New Zealand has 180,000 ha of privately-owned land with voluntary covenants showed “private landowners do care about conservation. This government will be taking a collaborative approach with them, rather than undermining their rights,” said Hoggard.

Green Party environment spokesperson Lan Pham said the move would jeopardise flora and fauna, that the decision was short-sighted thinking and would risk the country’s natural world.

“This decision ceases progress on a key part of decades of work that gave councils and communities a framework and foundation to support native wildlife to regenerate and flourish. This slash-and-burn approach to environmental regulation will fuel the decline of our natural estate.

“Sixty-three per cent of native ecosystems in Aotearoa are under threat, and a third of our native species are either threatened or at risk of extinction. How can the Government possibly think that now is the right time to wind back protections?”