The purpose of thse web pages, and the full document they summarise, has been to report to the community on the state of the environment in the Taranaki region and to record changes since the last state of the environment report in 2003.
The majority of the environmental indicators reported on demonstrate that environmental quality and overall sustainability in the Taranaki region remains high. Significant progress has been made on a number of issues since the last report.
Some issues continue to require priority attention and strategic action from the Council into the foreseeable future, but these are considered to be manageable with continued targeting of appropriate resources to the task.
Many of the programmes described in the State of the Environment Report 2009 have relied on a combination of methods. The Council has continued to implement its suite of regional plans prepared in the late 1990s – the Regional Soil Plan, the Regional Fresh Water Plan, the Regional Coastal Plan and the Regional Air Quality Plan. These contain formal policies and rules to manage the adverse environmental effects of activities.
Resource consents issued in accordance with the plans are monitored and enforced. This is a necessary part of effective environmental management and the Council places considerable emphasis on compliance with the conditions of resource consents to ensure that acceptable environmental standards are maintained.
The combined effect of all the actions noted in this report represents a significant step along the path to sustainable development. Sustainable development, a concept endorsed internationally, as well as nationally, is that which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Local Government, along with central Government, primary producers and industry, communities and other sectors of society, has a pivotal role in educating, mobilising and promoting sustainable development because it is the level of governance closest to people.
The overall approach of the Council to all of its environmental work, however, is encapsulated in its slogan ‘working with people, caring for our environment’. The Council has continued to give effect to this slogan and to strengthen it further by getting alongside farmers, landowners, industry and individuals and taking practical actions to protect and improve the environment.
This can be seen not only in the sort of actions taken to continuously improve environmental performance through the resource consent process, but also in the efforts of the Council and the community in the very significant voluntary programmes run by the Council such as its riparian, sustainable land management, self-help possum control, and biodiversity programmes.
The positive outcomes in this report towards achieving sustainable management have not come about by mere good fortune or by accident.
The Taranaki community can feel justifiably proud of the efforts it has made in recent years to ensure that Taranaki’s natural resources – vital to our economic and social well-being – are managed for the benefit of present and future generations.
These efforts have come at some considerable effort, hard work and serious money. It has been conservatively estimated that over the past five years environmental capital investments on water resources, air and noise, land management, energy efficiency and environmental services totalled $216.7 million – almost two and a half times the expenditure identified in 2002 for the previous five-year period. Local actions by the community, both proactive and reactive, are perhaps the single most important change towards sustainable development in Taranaki.
However, Taranaki’s clean, green image must never be taken for granted. This report does raise concerns regarding the effects of continued intensification of our dairying industry on soil compaction, modification of stream and wetland habitats for land development, and nutrient run-off from pasture with effects on water quality in the lower reaches of our rivers and streams.
These pressures will intensify with continued growth in our agricultural sector. They will require ongoing attention and responses. Restoring the riparian vegetation along the length of our rivers and streams is our biggest challenge.
The Taranaki Regional Council is greatly heartened by the extent to which the Taranaki community has moved to embrace environmental stewardship and the concept of sustainability. This bodes well for future issues that will almost certainly challenge us. The Council believes that sustainable development – a balanced, integrated approach to development that ensures we look after people and the environment in the long term – is the key to prosperity. This will involve working alongside other environmental agencies, farmers, landowners, industries and businesses to bring about practical, positive and permanent results over the next five years and in the decades beyond.
The Taranaki Regional Council welcomes and encourages feedback on the issues discussed in this report – phone 06 765 7127, email info@trc. govt.nz, visit the Taranaki Regional Council at 47 Cloten Road, Stratford or the website: www.trc.govt.nz.
Source references for material in this summary can be found in the full document.