1. Introduction

The Resource Management Act requires regional councils and local authorities, in developing or changing their plans, to take into account any relevant planning document recognised by an iwi authority affected by the plan (ss66 & 74)². Such documents are commonly referred to as Iwi Management Plans (IMPs). In addition there are several provisions in Part II of the Act requiring the interests of tangata whenua to be given varying levels of consideration. The Ministry for the Environment has promoted and funded the development of IMPs for several years - principally through the Sustainable Management Fund.

As part of a wider focus on improving the effectiveness of Māori participation in the management and use of natural resources, the Ministry for the Environment undertook to review IMPs. The review investigated whether IMPs are meeting the expectations of both the iwi who have developed them and the expectations of relevant local authorities and resource consent applicants.

KCSM Consultancy Solutions (KCSM) was contracted to assess the effectiveness of IMPs from the perspective of iwi who have developed a plan, including:

1. the value in managing the group’s participation in resource management
2. the usefulness for clarifying and prioritising environmental issues
3. the value of developing an IMP for building the capacity of the group
4. the improvement in environmental outcomes
5. the ongoing relevance to achieving environmental aspirations and engaging in resource management
6. alternatives to IMPs
7. the likelihood the group would repeat the experience of developing an IMP.

The review answered the questions above through three tasks:

• a stocktake to determine the number of IMPs in existence

• a review of a sample of 10 IMPs

• interviews with the 10 iwi who produced the sample IMPs.

This report presents the findings from these tasks.

At the same time, Environmental Management Services Ltd (EMS) conducted a phone survey with councils throughout the country to establish which councils knew of IMPs in their region or district. A sample of 10 councils (three regional, one unitary and six district) that had IMPs in their area were chosen with the agreement of the iwi, the councils and the Ministry for the Environment. The seven IMPs identified by councils as applying to their regions and districts were evaluated by EMS against the template provided by Te Raranga a Mahi: Developing environmental plans for whanau,hapūand iwi (Ministry for the Environment, 2000). The 10 councils and six resource consent applicants were given an agreed questionnaire to complete in order to gauge their views on IMPs.

KCSM note that the review was conducted over a very short period and limited the time available to identify, contact, and meet with iwi organisations. This meant that the Iwi interviewed were those iwi that were willing and able to meet in the time available. Accordingly, KCSM felt the sample was skewed towards iwi involved in environmental management, and excluded groups that, despite having at some time developed an IMP, had failed to effectively maintain their involvement in resource management.