Sustainable land management is crucial for our region

Tairāwhiti has the most erosion-prone land in the country with 25% of the North Island’s most severely eroding land located in our region. Current land practices are unsustainable, leaving our rivers and streams vulnerable to erosion, sedimentation, and woody debris.

The existing rules allow this to continue. To achieve long-term, meaningful improvements in our freshwater and coastal environments, we need to change how land use is managed. A plan change is being proposed to address these issues.

We support forestry and farming done right but it must be done in a way that protects our land and benefits our people.

Plan stop legislation now in effect

The plan stop legislation is now law and came into effect on 21 August 2025. Until 31 December 2027, councils can’t notify new plan changes or reviews unless an exemption is applied or granted.

We are actively seeking exemptions for priority work, including our Sustainable Land Use plan change. We intend to apply in the coming months so this important work can continue.

We are also reshaping our resource management planning work programme to be prepared for the transition to the new resource management system. Draft policy direction and legislation about the new system is being worked on by the Ministry for the Environment. Our goal is a smooth transition for our region.

We will keep the community updated on the outcomes of any exemption processes and share opportunities for people to have their say as our work progresses.

Read more about the plan stop legislation here.

Proposed plan change

This plan change intends to strengthen regulation of highly eroding and erosion-prone land and will support the long-term transition of the worst land to more sustainable land use.

Council is driving forward a plan change that aims to:

  • Strengthen controls on harvesting and earthworks on highly erodible land and to introduce clearer environmental performance expectations.
  • Review the current framework for managing eroding/erosion-prone land.
  • Identify the land most likely to deliver sediment and woody debris to the region’s waterways and to regulate in support of transitioning such land to permanent vegetation cover.

The National Environmental Standards for Commercial Forestry (NES-CF) are national rules for managing the environmental impacts of forestry. They were meant to make things easier for the forestry industry while protecting the environment.

However, these national rules don’t fully address the high risk of erosion in our region. So, we’re updating our Tairāwhiti Resource Management Plan (TRMP) to better manage this issue.

Forestry management and catchment planning are closely linked due to the impact of land use on waterways. In Ūawa, 42% (23,264 ha) of the catchment is forested.

Ūawa was chosen as a pilot area to bring landuse and freshwater planning together.

Guide to transitioning land to permanent vegetation cover

The Indicative Transition zone V1.0 layer has been developed as a non-regulatory tool for assisting landowners and land managers in our region to transition such land into permanent vegetative cover.

You can also access the map through this link.