Access to and activities in the coastal environment

Issue

The activities that we undertake upstream of and within our coastal environment can have adverse outcomes on the values of our coast and marine environments.

Causes

Spills, discharges, over-use of resources, habitat destruction, inappropriate uses of resources, and contamination – how we use the coastal environment and the freshwater bodies upstream of the coastal environment as a whole.

Coastal environments, infrastructure, and access to these areas are also threatened by multiple climate hazards including coastal erosion, inundation and ocean chemistry changes.

Why does it matter?

With 800km of coastline, our coastal environment is a huge part of the region’s identity. We undertake a range of activities in the coastal environment, such as recreation, tourism, commercial, restorative and amenity activities, as well as mahinga kai practices and the delivery of regionally significant infrastructure. These activities are important for the social, economic, and cultural well-being of our communities. The coastal environment is also home to some amazing ecosystems that our indigenous plant and animal species reside in and rely on.

Our current targets goals

Our Regional Policy Statement includes some direction that must be implemented and other direction that should be implemented. We have included these in two categories below:

1. Things we must do

This is very strong policy direction that is required to be implemented:

  • Protection of coastal water quality and associated values of the coastal environment, from significant adverse effects of contaminant discharge; and enhancement of coastal water quality where it has been degraded.
  • Access to and along the coastal marine area must be maintained whilst avoiding significant adverse effects on natural, physical, amenity, recreational, cultural and historic heritage values of the coastal environment.
  • The natural, amenity, recreational, cultural, landscape and historic heritage values of the coastal environment will be maintained and, in some places, enhanced.

2. Things we should do

This policy direction is strongly encouraged:

  • Work together and with government agencies and land occupiers/owners to ensure appropriate access to the coastal marine area is managed and implemented.

Should we change our goals

When we consider changing goals, we need to keep in mind that other on-the-ground changes will be required to meet them. We also need to keep in mind that some of our must-do policy direction was necessary to meet the national legislation requirements of the time. Some new must-dos will be needed to meet more recent legislation.

Potential impacts of changing our policy direction

We have outlined some of the potential consequences that could result from changing our policy direction. These are high-level examples, just to illustrate that each change will have flow-on effects.

For example, improving the health of our estuaries, hāpua and lagoons requires a reduction in the amount of contaminants that enter these areas. This may require different controls or better mitigation of activities that involve a discharge of contaminants. This would likely come with a cost that needs to be balanced against the benefits of improving our coastal environments and ecosystem services.

We are using the feedback we received in July and August to draft more detailed policy options, including detail about the consequences of change. You will get another opportunity to tell us what you think about those options in October this year.