The stock exclusion regulations prohibit the access of cattle, pigs and deer to wetlands, lakes and rivers. These regulations were developed as part of the Essential Freshwater reforms.
Resource Management (Stock Exclusion) Regulations 2020
MfE
Resource Management (Stock Exclusion) Regulations 2020 [New Zealand Legislation website]
3 September 2020
Livestock entering water bodies can cause contamination and damage the banks and other parts of aquatic habitats. This affects New Zealanders’ ability to use waterbodies for recreation and mahinga kai (food gathering).
Heavy livestock (cattle and deer) and pigs have the greatest impact.
Livestock can carry disease-causing organisms like campylobacter, which can make people sick when they come into contact with water contaminated with livestock dung.
Dung and urine also contain nutrients that promote weed growth and reduce the water body’s ability to support a healthy ecosystem.
When stock trample banks and beds of water bodies they increase streambank erosion and sediment runoff, adversely affecting habitats like those used for fish spawning.
These regulations, in force from 3 September 2020, apply to a person who owns or controls beef cattle, dairy cattle, dairy support cattle, deer or pigs (stock). The regulations require the person to exclude stock from specified wetlands, lakes and rivers more than one metre wide.
Dairy cattle, dairy support cattle and pigs must be excluded from the water bodies.
Beef cattle and deer must be excluded from the water bodies if they are break-feeding or grazing annual forage crops or irrigated pasture.
Stock must not be on land closer than three metres to the bed of rivers and lakes.
Stock, except deer, may only cross a river or lake by using a dedicated bridge or culvert, unless they cross no more than twice in any month. The regulation sets out circumstances when cattle and pigs can cross without a dedicated culvert or bridge. Deer are not subject to restrictions for crossing rivers and lakes.
In October 2024, the Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill repealed the low slope map and associated requirements from the Stock Exclusion Regulations.
Read the Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill.
This means that beef cattle and deer that are not intensively grazing (i.e., that are not break-feeding or grazing annual forage crops or irrigated pasture) are no longer required to be excluded from lakes and rivers more than one metre wide under the Stock Exclusion Regulations. However, regional plan rules may still apply.
In relation to wetlands, the regulations still require all stock (including beef cattle and deer that are not intensively grazing) to be excluded from some specified wetlands.
These changes come into effect on 25 October 2024.
The natural wetland provisions in the Stock Exclusion Regulations (i.e., regulations 16 and 17) don’t apply to the geographic area identified as the Upper Taieri Scroll Plain.
The Upper Taieri Scroll Plain is a meander system in which the Taieri River meanders across vast flood plains and, due to variable water flows, has created diverse wetland habitats and oxbow lakes. It is comprised of the Styx, the Māniototo Basins and the old Taieri Lakebed, which contain diverse wildlife and habitats that reflect the age, isolation, sediment regime and frequency of water flows and impoundments.
The size and complexity of these wetlands mean they are unique and particularly challenging to exclude stock from.
The above exception has been provided on the basis Otago Regional Council implements suitable provisions in its regional plan for managing grazing within the wetlands, as soon as reasonably practical and no later than 1 July 2025.
Other requirements to exclude stock and manage wetlands will continue to apply in respect of the wetlands. This includes existing direction in the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 and National Environmental Standards for Freshwater 2020 (see wetlands implementation guidance).