A Significant Natural Area is an area that has significant native vegetation or habitat for native wildlife.

The region’s three mayors, and iwi chairs who agonised over Biodiversity policy in the new Te Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP) last week, have called on the Government to make its intentions clear for Significant Natural Areas on private land, in its RMA reforms.

The council leaders objected to being forced for legal reasons to include Plan provisions that commit them to identifying SNAs , despite the fact that the Government told councils last year to pause the process for three years.

Under the TTPP rules, Buller and Westland would have to do the job for the first time, and Grey District, which created SNAs some years ago would have to redo them under newer criteria in the National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity (NPSIB).

Grey District mayor Tania Gibson protested that the exercise cost the council a $1 million dollars last time and ratepayers could not afford that again.

“We should reject this … until we get advice and clarify the RMA reforms; we can’t inflict this on private property, we’re just totally against it, “she said.

And Makaawhio leader, Paul Madgwick, called for a steer from Wellington.

“We certainly need to get clarity from the Government instead of all hot air. Are they genuine in what they’ve been saying publicly that the SNAs are going to be peeled back? Because if that’s the case we can address it in the light of a future Plan change. “

The RMA Amendment Act passed last year paused the identification of new SNAs ,to give the Government time to review the NPISB, which councils must give effect to.

“Rather than let these pricey, pointless planning and policy processes play out, the Government will be giving councils clarity on where to focus their efforts while they await the new planning system,” Mr Bishop said at the time.

But the edict came too late to halt work on the TTPP’s Biodiversity rules: it applied only to Plan changes that had not started their public hearings, and hearings on the $8 million TTPP were already well underway.

LDR asked the Minister’s office this week if it could shed light on the Government’s intentions for SNAs.

A spokesperson for the Minister said more information on the new resource management system would be available later this year.

“The Government wanted to address concerns that the SNA identification criteria may be too broad and could capture areas with less significant indigenous biodiversity and overly burden farmers, Māori, landowners, infrastructure providers and developers, “the spokesperson said.

“The Government will be introducing the new planning system to replace the Resource Management Act in late 2025 and pass it into law in mid-2026,” the spokesperson said.

Following that there would be an assessment and transition period for new national direction under the new system.

Any substantive changes to the NPSIB -which regulates SNAs- would be made during that transition period, the spokesperson said- that is, in the second half of next year.

West Coast Mayors and Chairs also plan to write to the Minister asking for a steer on SNA policy and warning that Coast councils cannot afford the process, Grey mayor Tania Gibson told LDR.

The TTPP in its present form requires councils to identify their SNAsby2030-a compromise reached at last week’s decisions meeting.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.