New Zealand Plans to Overhaul Forestry Regulation Under the Resource Management Act

New Zealand’s forestry sector is set for a major shake-up as the government plans to overhaul national direction under the Resource Management Act (RMA), according to an analysis by New Zealand law firm MinterEllisonRuddWatts (9-11-24).

As part of this reform, the National Environmental Standard for Commercial Forestry (NES-CF) will be significantly updated, alongside seven new national direction instruments and revisions to 13 other existing policy statements and standards. These changes mark a pivotal moment for forestry and resource management in New Zealand.

Forestry Minister Todd McClay has now provided more detail on the changes to the NES-CF, MinterEllisonRuddWatts said. Immediately before the October 2023 election, the previous government made changes to the (then) National Environmental Standards for Plantation Forestry. Those changes included allowing local authorities to set their own rules to regulate when afforestation is permitted or requires consent and a new permitted activity condition to manage slash.

The new coalition government intends to restore “confidence and certainty across the sector by removing unworkable regulatory burden created by” the October 2023 changes. Minister McClay says the government will make a number of changes to the NES-CF to ensure councils have a “comprehensive fit-for-purpose” toolkit with all the rules in once place to enhance and enable forestry and provide smarter evidence-based environmental outcomes.

In particular, government is proposing the following:

• Repeal regulation 6(4A), which says a rule in a plan may be more stringent or lenient than the NES-CF regulations relating to afforestation.
• Modify regulation 6(1)(a), which says a rule in a plan may be more stringent that the NES-CF regulations if the rule gives effect to an objective developed to give effect to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management.
• Improve slash management standards to clarify rules around slash on low-risk land.

According to MinterEllisonRuddWatts, it appears likely that a local authority’s ability to introduce more stringent or lenient rules within their districts/regions will be significantly reduced. This is likely to be a positive step for the forestry sector, who have been grappling with different rules applying across their forests, increasing regulatory compliance and costs.

In addition to these changes, Minister for RMA Reform Chris Bishop recently indicated that the government is actively considering increasing penalties for non-compliance with forest harvesting conditions. This move could potentially increase the financial risk for forestry operators and will be a matter that the forestry sector will want to keep a close eye on.

The proposed changes to the NES-CF will be released for consultation soon.