Clause 3.15: Preparing action plans
- Action plans prepared for the purpose of this National Policy Statement may:
- be prepared for whole FMUs, parts of FMUs, or multiple FMUs; and
- set out a phased approach to achieving environmental outcomes; and
- be ‘prepared’ by adding to, amending, or replacing an existing action plan.
- An action plan may describe both regulatory measures (such as proposals to amend regional policy statements and plans, and actions taken under the Biosecurity Act 1993 or other legislation) and non-regulatory measures (such as work plans and partnership arrangements with tangata whenua and community groups).
- If an action plan is prepared for the purpose of achieving a specific target attribute state or otherwise supporting the achievement of environmental outcomes it must:
- identify the environmental outcome that the target attribute state is aimed at achieving; and
- set out how the regional council will (or intends) to achieve the target attribute state.
- Action plans:
- must be published as soon as practicable; and
- may be published either by appending them to a regional plan or by publishing them separately.
- Before preparing an action plan, or amending an action plan other than in a minor way, the regional council must consult with communities and tangata whenua.
- Every action plan, or part of an action plan, prepared for the purpose of this National Policy Statement must be reviewed within 5 years after the action plan or part of the action plan is published.
Regional councils must prepare action plans to achieve the target states of attributes listed in appendix 2B of the NPS-FM. They may also prepare action plans for any other TAS, or otherwise support the achievement of outcomes.
Action plans may be prepared for all, part of or multiple FMUs, after consultation with tangata whenua and the community. These plans may include regulatory and non-regulatory measures. They can be a stand-alone document or added to a regional plan.
An action plan must:
- be published as soon as practicable, and reviewed within five years of publication
- clearly state which TAS and outcome it will achieve, and how the council will do this.
Where the attributes that require action plans are likely to interact with those that require limit setting, councils should prepare action plans as part of the regional plan.
Action plans can be published as a single plan or several individual plans, so long as they contain all relevant attributes. Include all relevant rules to act as a ‘user guide’ for management at the catchment and farm level, and for catchment groups, consents officers, farmers and farm advisors.
Action plans set out a staged approach to achieve environmental outcomes. They may also be prepared if there is a need to amend or replace an existing action plan.
Action plans may be useful to set out a response to new or emerging issues, before a change to the regional plan is possible, for example, if a degrading trend in water quality is likely (see the sections Clause 3.19: Assessing trends and Clause 3.20: Responding to degradation).
When preparing action plans for this purpose, tangata whenua, councils and communities should consider the following.
- For local issues, allow for local communities and hapū or whānau to contribute to the plan and take action to give it effect.
- Aim the plan at the relevant geographic or community scale, is a local or regional approach more appropriate?
- Support tangata whenua to continue developing attributes and undertake monitoring at the desired scale, to implement the plan.
Action plans and Integrated Catchment Management Plans
Clear crossovers exist between action plans in the context of the NPS-FM and integrated catchment management plans (ICMPs). An action plan could incorporate existing ICMPs, but it does not have to. Existing ICMPs are not likely to meet the requirements to act as action plans under the NPS-FM, but there is no reason not to adjust them to form an NPS-FM-compliant action plan.
Clause 3.15: Preparing action plans
July 2022
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