Aotearoa New Zealand's first national adaptation plan

Chapter 6 Natural environment

Published: 3 August 2022

Two young adults are walking on the shore by some pristine water and two other young adults are sitting on a log on the shore. Mountains are in the background.

Published: 3 August 2022

PDF download, 7 MB

Te reo summary download, 2.4 MB

Summary download, 2.4 MB

Published: 3 August 2022

PDF download, 7 MB

Te reo summary download, 2.4 MB

Summary download, 2.4 MB

The plan was published in 2022. Some actions in the plan were amended in January 2025 as part of the Government's response to the Climate Change Commission's national adaptation plan progress report. These updates reflect changes in circumstances since the plan was published, and align with the Government’s climate strategy.

See the response and updated table of actions for more details.

Government agencies with actions in this chapter

Department of Conservation (DOC)
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI)
Ministry for the Environment (MfE)
New Zealand Customs Service (NZ Customs)

Why these actions are important for building resilience

A healthy and diverse natural environment will withstand climate change impacts. We can make this happen by reducing human-induced pressures, reducing predator and browser activities, and restoring ecosystems. When ecosystems are healthy, they buffer us from the impacts and contribute to our social, economic and cultural wellbeing.

Significant risks addressed in this chapter

N = Natural

N1: Risks to coastal ecosystems, including the intertidal zone, estuaries, dunes, coastal lakes and wetlands, due to ongoing sea-level rise and extreme weather events.
N2: Risks to indigenous ecosystems and species from the enhanced spread, survival and establishment of invasive species due to climate change.

Objectives relevant to critical actions

NE = Natural environment

NE1: Ecosystems which are healthy and connected, and where biodiversity is thriving.
NE2: Robust biosecurity reduces the risk of new pests and diseases spreading.
NE3: Support working with nature to build resilience.

Critical actions relevant to this chapter

Implement the Department of Conservation (DOC) Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan (CCAAP) to assess ecosystem and species vulnerability to climate impacts, and the adaptation actions to enhance their resilience.
Engage with councils on how climate impacts on coastal ecosystems can be reduced by implementing the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement.
Implement Te Mana o te Taiao – Aotearoa New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy to ensure the protection, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity in Aotearoa.
Implement the proposed National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity to protect, maintain and restore indigenous biodiversity.
Deliver climate, biodiversity and wider environmental outcomes through an integrated work programme.
Implement key freshwater management programmes to ensure water availability, security and healthy waterways.
Implement the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management 2020 to ensure the healthy functioning of freshwater ecosystems and reduce negative impacts from land use.
Deliver biosecurity actions to protect our indigenous ecosystems and economy from invasive species.

A resilient natural environment can buffer the impacts of climate change for human and natural systems.

The natural environment encompasses indigenous and non-indigenous species in natural and modified terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments. It includes all ecosystems in environments from mountains to the sea (ki uta ki tai).

Due to our geographical isolation, many of Aotearoa New Zealand’s indigenous plants and wildlife exist nowhere else on Earth: we have a unique diversity of species.

Our taonga species and ecosystems* make a significant contribution to global biodiversity and underpin the way we are seen worldwide. Internationally, the biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis are acknowledged to be closely linked.

All aspects of life in Aotearoa rely on a thriving natural environment. It is essential for our physical and mental health, water security, culture and economy. The natural environment contributes to climate resilience by buffering climate impacts, improving wellbeing and sequestering carbon. These linkages are acknowledged in Te Mana o te Taiao – Aotearoa New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy 2020.**

From the perspective of te ao Māori, the natural environment is interconnected through genealogical links to all facets of the environment, including Papatūānuku (earth mother), Ranginui (sky father), Tāne mahuta (forests) and Tangaroa (sea). When the environment is unwell, this affects our health and wellbeing.

A thriving natural environment is more resilient to climate change because it can recover from, and absorb, disturbances and has the capacity to reorganise into similar ecosystems. Addressing climatic and human-induced pressures on the environment is key to a thriving and resilient natural system.

* Endemic to New Zealand are unique species of bat, frog and insect, ancient tuatara, flightless birds and beech forests.

** Read Te Mana o te Taiao – Aotearoa New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy 2020 [PDF, 2.8 MB]

Pressure on coastal ecosystems

Aotearoa New Zealand’s coastal ecosystems and species are vulnerable to gradual and extreme changes in climate. Sea-level rise puts pressure on coastal ecosystems and forces them to move inland where possible, or submerges them where landward migration is not possible.

Subdivisions and urban development reduce the availability of sites for landward migration by ecosystems and species as sea levels rise, and reduce bird habitat.

Although coastal ecosystems tend to adapt well to natural hazards, the increase in frequency and intensity of climate events gives them less time to recover.

Reducing human pressures and planning for ecosystem corridors are the best ways to enable coastal ecosystems to respond to climate change.

Spread of pests and diseases

Our natural systems are already under pressure from exotic pests and diseases, which threaten indigenous biodiversity and species crucial to trade. Climate change increases the chance of established pests spreading further, reproducing faster and having greater adverse impacts on biodiversity. It also increases the risk of new invasive pests and diseases becoming established.

By strengthening our border biosecurity system and supporting pest management programmes, we will be able to identify and manage the risks from new and established pests early. Identifying areas and species vulnerable to shifts in pest distribution will also help manage this risk.

Impacts on hapū, iwi and Māori

Te ao Māori principles and way of life are likely to be compromised by changes in the natural environment due to climate change. Whakapapa is the intergenerational obligation of caring for the environment, empowering Māori to actively care for and preserve the natural world, ensuring that it is used sustainably by present and future generations.

Climate risks in the natural environment affect Māori cultural, economic and spiritual wellbeing. Climate change will affect culture and customs relating to mahinga kai (food-gathering sites) and urupā (burial grounds), as well as economic opportunities through cascading impacts on tourism and agriculture. The loss of vulnerable species and ecosystems will disturb relationships Māori have with these living taonga.

Case study: Queensland fruit fly

In future, climate change is likely to create conditions that enable the Queensland fruit fly (Q‑fly) to establish in Aotearoa. This insect pest can cause serious harm, making over 100 types of fruits and vegetables inedible. It is seen as one of the most significant biosecurity threats to our horticultural industries.

In 2015, the first breeding population of Q-fly was detected in Auckland. The response to this detection resulted in the disposal of more than 530 tonnes of fresh produce, and the cost of the operation amounted to approximately $13.6 million. The ongoing national surveillance trap network (since 1986) has proven effective in detecting Q-fly early in Aotearoa, enabling a quick and immediate response to minimise the impacts on our environment and trade. About 7,900 traps in the national surveillance network have been placed throughout the country, in locations where there is a high risk that Q-fly will enter and become established. This initiative has helped prevent the establishment of a Q-fly population to date.

Ongoing research is essential in providing information on how to run surveillance programmes (including climate considerations) to inform future decisions.

The actions in this chapter are designed to address the 12 natural environment risks in the National Climate Change Risk Assessment 2020. They address the following significant risks:

N1: Risks to coastal ecosystems, including the intertidal zone, estuaries, dunes, coastal lakes and wetlands, due to ongoing sea-level rise and extreme weather events
N2: Risks to indigenous ecosystems and species from the enhanced spread, survival and establishment of invasive species due to climate change.

When ecosystems are healthy and diverse, they can adjust more effectively to climate threats.

The natural environment has high ecological integrity because human-induced pressure has eased and restoration efforts have been successful. Ecological corridors protect our biodiversity and enable species and ecosystems to move across landscapes as the climate changes. By understanding the impacts of these changes and reducing pressures, we give ecosystems more time to adjust to new climate threats.

Nature-based solutions buffer against climate impacts, while also fostering wellbeing, sequestering carbon and increasing biodiversity.

The Government has identified three objectives to support a resilient natural environment, which in turn will support resilient communities.

Table 5: Government objectives to support a resilient natural environment

Code	Objective	Explanation
NE1	Ecosystems that are healthy and connected, and where biodiversity is thriving	Biodiversity, ecosystems and dynamic land and sea environments are strengthened. Ecosystem health improves, ecosystems and species have room to move, and human pressures lessen. The natural environment can best respond to climate impacts if it is intact and connected. Its natural diversity, and ecological and physical processes, are supported and enhanced.
NE2	Robust biosecurity reduces the risk of new pests and diseases spreading	Plants and animals are more resilient through the control of invasive pests and diseases, and the risk of these establishing and spreading is reduced.
NE3	Support working with nature to build resilience	Indigenous ecosystems are restored and protected, sites that need buffers against climate risks are identified and communities are supported in understanding nature-based solutions as a choice for adaptation.

Critical actions to support a natural environment that is healthy and diverse, and that can adjust more effectively to climate threats are set out below and also in chapter 3: Enabling better risk-informed decisions, chapter 4: Driving climate-resilient development in the right locations and chapter 5: Adaptation options including managed retreat.

These actions include:

providing advice to landowners about restoration and regeneration of indigenous forest (action 3.13: Provide a forestry planning and advisory service)
helping farmers plan to support biodiversity (action 3.14: Deliver the Integrated Farm Planning Programme)
developing mātauranga Māori indicators of climate impacts on the natural environment, which will facilitate baseline datasets for monitoring climate impacts on the natural environment. These in turn will be used for environmental assessments and will centralise indigenous knowledge and values in adaptation monitoring and assessment (action 3.21: develop mātauranga Māori indicators of climate impacts on the natural environment)
prioritising nature-based solutions, which will ensure such solutions for climate adaptation will be considered in the Government’s planning and regulatory systems where possible (action 5.9: Prioritise nature-based solutions)
prioritising the health of water bodies and freshwater in Aotearoa to ensure these ecosystems have the capacity to adapt to climate impacts (action 6.7: Implement the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020).

Addressing inequity

Programmes targeted at water security and biosecurity will make the natural environment more resilient and support Māori, food and fibre producers and rural communities.

Actions across this chapter will help to protect the natural environment for future generations, while enabling disproportionately impacted people and communities to adapt to changes and build resilience.

The spread of new pests and diseases could affect the wellbeing, customary practices, cultural identity and social cohesion of Māori communities and may threaten indigenous biodiversity. Action 6.8: Deliver a collection of actions run by Biosecurity New Zealand will help protect taonga species and support the wellbeing and cultural identity of Māori.

Climate change can create new habitats for tree species and make existing habitats unsuitable. Māori may be disproportionately affected because they own 40 per cent of the commercial forest. Action 3.13: Provide a forestry planning and advisory service and action 6.12: Implement the Sustainable Land Management Hill Country Erosion Programme will support Māori to meet aspirations for their land and help them make good adaptation decisions.

Landowners, food and fibre businesses and rural communities are especially vulnerable to both acute climate events and more gradual climate change impacts that affect water availability and security. These effects also limit options for landowners to implement climate-resilient land uses, including owners of underdeveloped land (much of which is Māori-owned). Action 6.6: Implement the Water Availability and Security programme will help food and fibre sectors and rural communities have appropriate access to water, and support tangata whenua aspirations. The programme will enable the transition to a sustainable food and fibre sector, and support the resilience of rural communities and the welfare of animals.

Critical actions

Action 6.1: Implement the Department of Conservation Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan

Timeframe: Years 1–4 (2022–25)
Lead agency: DOC
Relevant portfolio: Conservation
Primarily supports: Objective NE1
Status: Current

The Department of Conservation (DOC) Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan (CCAAP) is a medium-term plan, which applies to public conservation land and waters managed by DOC, as well as threatened native species and systems.

The plan aims to assess ecosystem and species vulnerability to climate impacts, and the adaptation actions to enhance their resilience. Possible actions include translocating climate-vulnerable species, and pest control to improve the resilience of native ecosystems.

By 2024, a reporting framework on the implementation of the CCAAP will be in place. DOC adaptation work progress will be reported against the framework.

Action 6.2: Engage with councils to implement the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement

Timeframe: Years 1–6 (2022–28)
Lead agency: DOC
Relevant portfolios: Conservation; Local Government
Primarily supports: Objective NE1
Status: Current

Regional policy statements, regional plans and district plans must give effect to the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement 2010 (NZCPS). However, most councils have not yet implemented the NZCPS.

The NZCPS provides the policy mechanism for protecting indigenous biodiversity in the coastal environment, and for managing risks to coastal ecosystems (policies 11, and 24–27 NZCPS). The NZCPS’s coastal hazard management mechanisms include managed retreat and nature-based solutions.

The NZCPS emphasises integrated and strategic planning for current and future activities and cumulative effects, irrespective of jurisdictional boundaries and responsibilities (policies 4 and 7 NZCPS).

By 2024, DOC will review progress on NZCPS implementation by councils.

Action 6.3: Implement Te Mana o te Taiao – Aotearoa New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy 2020

Timeframe: Years 1–6 (2022–28)
Lead agency: DOC
Relevant portfolio: Conservation
Primarily supports: Objective NE1
Status: Current

Te Mana o te Taiao – Aotearoa New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy 2020 (ANZBS) is a strategic document for the protection, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity in Aotearoa from 2020 to 2050. It guides all those who work with, or have an impact on, biodiversity, including whānau, hapū, iwi, central and local government, industry, non-government organisations, scientists, landowners and individuals.

A priority of ANZBS is to ensure efforts to tackle biodiversity loss and climate change are reciprocal. Climate-specific goals come under objective 13: Biodiversity provides nature-based solutions to climate change and is resilient to its effects. Objective 11 also responds to climate risk: Biological threats and pressures are reduced through management. There are goals relating to predator control, browser management, coastal habitat protection and restoration, as well as getting the system right and empowering action across the sector.

The first iteration of the plan was launched in April 2022 and includes actions by agencies and local government.

By 2024, the collaborative structures and channels into the biodiversity sector will be established and the second implementation plan will be launched.

Action 6.4: Implement the proposed National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity

Timeframe: Years 1–6 (2022–28)
Lead agencies: MfE; DOC
Relevant portfolios: Environment; Conservation
Primarily supports: Objective NE1
Status: Current

The regulatory arm of Te Mana o te Taiao – Aotearoa New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy 2020 is the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity (NPS-IB), currently under development. The objective of the NPS-IB is to protect, maintain and restore indigenous biodiversity.

The NPS-IB plays a part in building the resilience of biodiversity to climate change through its role in protecting, maintaining and restoring biodiversity, including requiring councils and landowners to consider creating ecological corridors.

Protections for indigenous biodiversity will be transitioned into the resource management reform in 2023. This will be a new opportunity to bring in specific adaptation policies for biodiversity and ecosystem conservation across Aotearoa.

By 2024, the NPS-IB will be in force and implementation will have begun.

Action 6.5: Establish an integrated work programme to deliver climate, biodiversity and wider environmental outcomes

Timeframe: Years 1–4 (2022–26)
Lead agencies: DOC; MfE
Relevant portfolios: Conservation; Environment
Primarily supports: Objective NE3
Status: Current

The Government will establish an integrated work programme to address climate change and biodiversity loss together. This initiative will address key barriers to regenerating and protecting native ecosystems – such as the higher costs of investing in native ecosystems and lack of Aotearoa-specific evidence on non-forest carbon sequestration – and create better incentives for restoring native ecosystems. It will also investigate how private and public money intended for offsetting hard-to-reduce emissions could support both climate and biodiversity outcomes. The programme will focus on the following areas.

Supporting restoration and protection of indigenous forests. This includes:
- reducing the costs of native plants
- establishing a long-term work programme to support native afforestation and restoration.
Improving knowledge about nature-friendly carbon removals. The Government is supporting research into the carbon removal and storage potential of native ecosystems. This includes research to scope:
- improving Aotearoa-specific estimates of organic soil emissions (undertaken by Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research and the University of Waikato)
- the impacts of management interventions on carbon sequestration and storage.
Supporting native afforestation and restoration through the Carbon Neutral Government Programme. By 2025, emissions that cannot be reduced under the Carbon Neutral Government Programme must be offset. The work programme will investigate how offsetting those emissions could also promote biodiversity and wider environmental outcomes.
Investigating incentives for public and private investment in biodiversity. This work will investigate how:
- to remove barriers landowners face in accessing funding and information
- investments in biodiversity can protect and enhance carbon stocks and support climate resilience.

By 2024, all actions in the work programme will be underway.

Action 6.6: Implement the Water Availability and Security programme

Timeframe: Years 1–6 (2022–28)
Lead agency: MPI (MfE support)
Relevant portfolio: Agriculture
Primarily supports: Objective NE1
Status: Current

Climate change increases natural water variability, affecting access to freshwater across the country.

The Water Availability and Security programme will help food and fibre businesses and rural communities adapt to increasingly variable natural water availability through a range of complementary activities to both reduce demand and make best use of available water. It will help restore and maintain the health of waterways, taking its lead from the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management [PDF, 795 KB].

By 2024, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) will form a permanent team to address water availability and security in the food and fibre sectors and rural communities. This work will include partnering with Māori, rural communities and other sectors to find solutions.

Action 6.7: Implement the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management 2020

Timeframe: Years 1–6 (2022–28)
Lead agency: MfE
Relevant portfolio: Environment
Primarily supports: Objective NE1
Status: Current

Adaptation action for freshwater bodies will be achieved through local councils devising suitable plan provisions (eg, rules) to achieve a range of outcomes, and must ensure the ability to use resources (eg, land use, discharges, etc) is matched to the assimilative capacity of freshwater.

The National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management 2020 (NPS-FM 2020) [PDF, 795 KB] applies to all freshwater, including groundwater, and will require management of freshwater in both rural and urban areas. It requires councils to give effect to Te Mana o te Wai, which prioritises the health and wellbeing of water bodies and freshwater ecosystems. Water users will adapt land-use practices in response to these and as the climate impacts become apparent. These actions will ensure the healthy functioning of freshwater ecosystems and mitigate negative impacts from land use.

By 2024, regional councils will notify plans implementing the NPS-FM 2020.

Action 6.8: Deliver a collection of actions run by Biosecurity New Zealand

The following actions address risks to indigenous ecosystems and species that result from the greater spread, survival and establishment of invasive species. They also help build climate resilience of ecosystems generally.

Action 6.8.1: Implement an on-farm biosecurity programme

Timeframe: Years 1–2 (2022–24)
Lead agency: MPI
Relevant portfolio: Biosecurity
Primarily supports: Objective NE2
Status: Current

This programme aims to improve biosecurity on dairy and sheep and beef farms and create a more resilient biosecurity system. It is responsible for developing and implementing an action plan to overcome barriers and increase voluntary on-farm biosecurity practices.

By mid-2023, changes will have been measured in the four core behaviours (talk about biosecurity, show leadership, be curious to understand the risks, and make choices – recognition and reinforcement) to track programme impact against objectives.

Action 6.8.2: Invest in strengthening border biosecurity

Timeframe: Years 1–6 (2022–2028)
Lead agencies: MPI; NZ Customs
Relevant portfolio: Biosecurity
Primarily supports: Objective NE2
Status: Current

Two significant projects (Sea Cargo Programme and Mail Pathways Project) delivered by Biosecurity New Zealand will improve how we address the biosecurity risk from mail and sea cargo pathways. They will also protect biodiversity by identifying pest species that arrive through our international borders.