The Government recently announced the gazettal of the National Policy Statement – Indigenous Biodiversity (NPS-IB) and the consultation document on biodiversity credits.
We acknowledge the NPS-IB is a key piece of legislation that is needed to protect biodiversity, and the release of the document offers some clarity on the role that councils must play.
The objectives of the NPS-IB largely align with the wider national and interregional context that the Biodiversity Strategy was developed within.
It will also assist us and our partners in how we proceed in implementing these objectives against our current work and values.
We also see some potential in how the biodiversity credit system can help to incentivise the protection and restoration of native wildlife in Te Tauihu.
The Native Habitats Tasman (NHT) programme has been mapping significant habitats under the same criteria outlined in the NPS-IB.
Potential changes coming to landowners were discussed in the recent rural conversations events and they did not raise any significant issues.
Our next step is to liaise appropriately with staff, our partner organisations and stakeholders to ensure that all necessary aspects and timings of the NPS-IB can be met, particularly around resourcing, workability and implementation costs.
This includes working with the NHT oversight group and the legal team to understand the requirements of the NPS-IB and how they differ from the existing voluntary NHT programme.