Southland Water and Land Plan
Topics
3 min read
In May 2024, Environment Southland's Water and Land Plan became final apart from a few minor issues. Plan Change Tuatahi, a broader water management plan, has been delayed until 2027. Farmers now need to check the new rules and see which ones apply to them. DairyNZ will continue to focus on working with Environment Southland and other groups to build a strong evidence base and find solutions that benefit farmers and the environment.
The Southland Water and Land Plan - what you need to know
Environment Southland has developed fact sheets relating to the Southland Water and Land Plan (SWLP) which can be viewed on the Environment Southland website.
Until 27 November 2024, as long as farmers keep doing what they have done before, they can continue with their current practices. This is called existing user rights.
For the new rules, farmers need to become familiar with and understand new permitted activity conditions or apply for a resource consent within these new rules, before 27 November 2024.
Some changes brought in through the Water and Land Plan:
- A requirement for water quality to improve across much of Southland.
- As an overall requirement, contaminant losses won't be allowed to increase due to new activities, and existing activities will need to minimise losses or risk of contaminant loss. How much is not specified - this is for Plan Change Tuatahi to determine (see below).
- All farms will need a Freshwater Environment Management Plan (FEMP). FEMP requirements are set out in an appendix to the plan (Appendix N). While there are changes being made to the national Freshwater Farm Plan regulations, these regional requirements still apply in Southland.
- Intensive winter grazing will be permitted but with conditions, which you can read on this Environment Southland factsheet. It is important to note that even though national Intensive Winter Grazing regulations have been removed, the regional regulations still apply.
- Wintering on pasture using supplement feed will have its own permitted activity rule, with some conditions and without an area threshold. You can read the conditions on this Environment Southland factsheet.
- There are regional stock exclusion regulations, which you can read on this Environment Southland factsheet.
With the new Southland Water and Land Plan coming in, some existing plans will be replaced and no longer be valid. This means you don’t have to follow the rules in those plans, including the Transitional Regional Plan and the Regional Effluent Land Application Plan. The Regional Water Plan for Southland becomes inoperative (excluding the 5 provisions relating to activities where the SWLP proposed provisions remain under appeal).
An overview of the Southland Water and Land Plan process
The SWLP was first notified in 2016 and the process has been ongoing since then. DairyNZ and Fonterra submitted a joint appeal to the plan, presenting evidence at Environment Court hearings. We advocated for fair outcomes throughout the plan development process, to ensure the policy framework is not unnecessarily stringent.
DairyNZ worked with Fonterra and other primary sector interests to ensure dairy farmers can continue working their land without resource consent and that the permitted activity rules with conditions are practical for farmers to follow.
Outcome of DairyNZ main appeal points
| Key issue | The position we opposed | We asked for | Outcome |
| Land use for farming | Some parties sought consent requirements for all farming, with far-reaching conditions. | The use of land for farming should be a permitted activity, with a requirement to have a FEMP (farm environment management plan). | Favourable outcome for dairy. |
| Ephemeral rivers | Some parties wanted all farming activities excluded from ephemeral rivers. | A change in terminology because these areas are not rivers as defined and they would be unworkable for farmers to manage as proposed. We sought several changes, including areas to be identified and risks addressed through the FEMP. | Favourable outcome for dairy. |
| Degraded catchments | The proposal required all farmers to have a land use consent, with far-reaching conditions. | We sought for farming to be a permitted activity if farmers have a FEMP. Some additional requirements could apply for a degraded catchment. | Favourable outcome for dairy. However, the FEMP framework ended up with several additional requirements which we didn’t support. |
| Setbacks/buffer widths | Some parties sought larger setbacks than proposed by the regional council. | We asked for considerations of cost and practicality. | Mixed outcome. |
| Wintering on pasture | Some parties sought a new rule to regulate high-risk wintering on pasture. | We opposed a new rule and wanted risk from wintering addressed in the FEMP. | We ended up with a permitted activity rule but with conditions that farmers should be able to meet. |
The next phase – Plan Change Tuatahi
The original intention of the SWLP was to 'hold the line' on water quality degradation, that is stop the expansion of high-risk activities and get land users moving towards good practice. This was step one of two.
Step two is Plan Change Tuatahi, intended as a limit-setting plan which will identify water quality outcomes and catchments where there is too much pollution (over allocation) and put rules in to reduce how much pollution can be discharged to land and waterways.
This was to be publicly notified in late 2024. With changes to the National Policy Statement underway, Environment Southland have opted to pause Plan Change Tuatahi until 2027.
DairyNZ will work with Environment Southland on what a ‘Southland solution to freshwater issues’ looks like, and develop a better economic and scientific evidence base.
Questions on this topic?
DairyNZ contact person:
David Cooper
Principal Policy Advisor
david.cooper@dairynz.co.nz
Tags related to “Southland Water and Land Plan”