Home28 September 2022
The new National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL), was released by the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) in September 2022. The intent of this policy is to ensure the availability of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most favourable soils for food and fibre production, now and for the future.
The policy is to provide direction to improve the way highly production land is managed under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA).
Director, Amanda Black released the following statement in response to the release of this policy.
“The protection of highly productive land has been a concern for food producers and scientists for more than two decades. The release of a NPS on highly productive land, at least, is an acknowledgement of the national importance that this issue has, and the impact that continued loss has on our own food security, the wider Pacific food security and of course income from export.
My concern is that it will take at least 3.5 years to really implement and relies heavily on coordination between authorities. While it comes into effect on the 17th October 2022, any land already marked for subdivision will still go ahead. There are also a number of exceptions to protecting highly productive land that begs the questions – will the NPS be able to adequately protect our future food supply, and is this it too little too late?”
Today FM approached Amanda for further comment.
Listen to the full interview with Tova O’Brian. Their korero features from 57.50 mins into the Full Show: 19/9/2022 >
Also published on Today FM, is an article that features a comment from Amanda. Read article here >
