River Gravel Management Strategy review 2025

Update: August 2025

The Canterbury Regional River Gravel Management Strategy 2025 has been formally adopted.

After three years of review and collaboration, Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury) formally adopted the Canterbury Regional River Gravel Management Strategy 2025 (GMS) on Wednesday 30 July.

The updated strategy reflects valuable input from Rūnanga partners, industry, territorial authorities, government and non-government organisations, such as territorial authorities and local rivercare groups, and other stakeholders across Waitaha Canterbury.

The review focused on making our approach to gravel extraction more effective, transparent, and aligned with the values and needs of our communities. We examined how to streamline permission processes, reassessed volume and duration limits, and prioritised ways to support community resilience to flooding and erosion, river health and biodiversity, mana whenua values, and gravel supply for the community.

If you are a gravel extractor, you may want to familiarise yourself with some adjustments on the criteria for gravel authorisations and direction for resource consent and planning decisions in Part 4 of the GMS. For gravel authorisations:

  • Duration: The maximum duration extends to 18 months (our preference is for you to apply for a shorter duration where that suits your project).

  • Volume: unchanged – a maximum volume of 60,000m3 where gravel is determined to be available.

  • Location: Within river-rating districts and where required to protect community infrastructure.

  • 100m3: Small volumes of up to 100m3 may be sought anywhere within the region where gravel is available.

Our next phase is to review the Canterbury Regional River Gravel Extraction Code of Practice to ensure it is fit for purpose and delivering on the commitments made within the GMS. This review will be discussed in upcoming gravel meetings.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to shaping this strategy. Your input has been instrumental in helping us build a more strategic and sustainable approach to gravel management.

A recording of the Council meeting where the strategy was adopted is available on our YouTube channel if you’d like to view the discussion.

Want to stay updated on gravel industry news? Sign up to our newsletter today!

Update: August 2025

The Canterbury Regional River Gravel Management Strategy 2025 has been formally adopted.

After three years of review and collaboration, Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury) formally adopted the Canterbury Regional River Gravel Management Strategy 2025 (GMS) on Wednesday 30 July.

The updated strategy reflects valuable input from Rūnanga partners, industry, territorial authorities, government and non-government organisations, such as territorial authorities and local rivercare groups, and other stakeholders across Waitaha Canterbury.

The review focused on making our approach to gravel extraction more effective, transparent, and aligned with the values and needs of our communities. We examined how to streamline permission processes, reassessed volume and duration limits, and prioritised ways to support community resilience to flooding and erosion, river health and biodiversity, mana whenua values, and gravel supply for the community.

If you are a gravel extractor, you may want to familiarise yourself with some adjustments on the criteria for gravel authorisations and direction for resource consent and planning decisions in Part 4 of the GMS. For gravel authorisations:

  • Duration: The maximum duration extends to 18 months (our preference is for you to apply for a shorter duration where that suits your project).

  • Volume: unchanged – a maximum volume of 60,000m3 where gravel is determined to be available.

  • Location: Within river-rating districts and where required to protect community infrastructure.

  • 100m3: Small volumes of up to 100m3 may be sought anywhere within the region where gravel is available.

Our next phase is to review the Canterbury Regional River Gravel Extraction Code of Practice to ensure it is fit for purpose and delivering on the commitments made within the GMS. This review will be discussed in upcoming gravel meetings.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to shaping this strategy. Your input has been instrumental in helping us build a more strategic and sustainable approach to gravel management.

A recording of the Council meeting where the strategy was adopted is available on our YouTube channel if you’d like to view the discussion.

Want to stay updated on gravel industry news? Sign up to our newsletter today!

  • Early engagement in 2022

    In mid-late 2022, we carried out some early engagement including workshops and an online survey. You can read a summary of the survey results here.

    Of the respondents who provided additional feedback beyond the survey questions, the key concerns we have been asked to consider are as follows:

    • How we operate as the regulatory body and what can be improved upon
    • Environmental impacts, both for and against river-based gravel extraction
    • The need to take a long-term view of river management with respect for the impending impacts of climate change
    • Long, difficult, and expensive process to gain Resource Consents, needs to be simplified
    • Gravel Authorisation process needs improvement
    • The contribution of gravel extraction as a means of flood mitigation and road structure (ie bridge pylons) longevity.

    If you have further questions about this work, please contact us at gravel@ecan.govt.nz.

Page last updated: 20 Aug 2025, 09:19 AM