Tairawhiti is feeling the impacts of multiple system failures to protect our environment.

A review of acceptable land use in Tairāwhiti is seriously overdue, and we can’t afford to wait for the ten year process currently proposed by Gisborne District Council. The region, the regulator and central government need encouragement to take stronger action faster.

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We, the undersigned, call on Gisborne District Council to: 

1. Support an independent inquiry into the regulatory system for land use in Tairāwhiti - with a focus on activities (and lack of activity) contributing to erosion, sedimentation and woody debris deposits in waterways and the marine coastal environment.

2. Prioritise a review of land use rules related to activities on the steep, erosion-prone land that comprises 80% of the region.

3. Offer our Council to be a pilot region for the Resource Management Reforms that will include significant support from Central Government, this should enable stricter local rules to trump national policy where required.

4. Work with Trust Tairāwhiti, other regional leadership organisations, residents, ratepayers and Central Government on a 20 year regional Just Transition plan to ensure all land use in the region is truly sustainable - from economic, social, cultural and environmental perspectives.

5. Request the establishment of a ministerial group including the Ministers for the Environment, Climate Change, Business & Employment, Social Development, Forestry, Agriculture, Civil Defence, Research, Science & Innovation, and Māori Development to support the development, implementation and monitoring of a regional Just Transition plan for Tairāwhiti.

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A timeline of media headlines since 2018 indicate a crisis is brewing: 

2018

– “Flooding turned a Tolaga Bay bridge to logs. More heavy rain is coming” 

2019

– “Council's failure to monitor forestry company was 'reprehensible' – judge”

2020

 – “East Coast's forestry slash problem not going away”

– “Forest slash stretches all the way up east coast after heavy rain”

2021

– “Environmental impact of forestry taking a toll on East Coast communities”

2022  

– “Forestry company to pay $355,000 for offending that led to 'tsunami' of damage”

– Police name woman swept away in river on East Coast

– “Māori landowners want more certainty exotic trees will remain in ETS after govt backdown”

2023  

– “Cyclone Hale: Tolaga Bay property inundated by forestry debris, silt”

– “Tairāwhiti flooding made worse by forestry debris” 

– “Tolaga Bay residents demand solutions after slash causes floods during Cyclone Hale”

– Dramatic rescue of family whose ute was trapped in swollen river near Ruatoria

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The issues are complex, intergenerational and shared by multiple stakeholders. A group of Tairāwhiti residents from across the region have come together to push for stronger action, better planning and rules, and ultimately, truly sustainable land use and new industries and jobs in the region. We're calling on Gisborne District Council but everyone has some responsibility - from landowners and voters to businesses and central government.

1. Gisborne District Council has a legal requirement to review their resource management plans every ten years. In 2020 Gisborne District Council looked at issues and options for starting the review of the Tairāwhiti Resource Management Plan (combined Unitary Plan and Regional Policy Statement). The scoping report outlined three options for the plan review, including standard track, streamlined, and collaborative, and an analysis of whether the review should be undertaken in full staged or rolling. The comprehensive report included costs and benefits for each option, and how the various approaches to the review would work in practice for Tāirawhiti. At the time Council agreed to streamline their Plan Review. This has not happened.

2. Over many years GDC has contributed to central government policies for forestry via the National Environmental Standards for Plantation Forests (NES-PF). GDC staff have tried to ensure the special situation in Tairāwhiti - with steep, erosion-prone landscape on young soils and soft rock - is taken into account to allow special local rules. These efforts have not always been successful as the NES-PF has largely been led by forestry industry interests who have the resources to contribute significant time and expertise to the process and tend to have more sway with successive politicians than local government officials usually have. Some special provisions for regions like Tairāwhiti have been included in the NES-PF but not enough to ensure rules that are fit for purpose can be made and enforced. The NES-PF is currently under review and the opportunity exists for central government to make better provisions for unique situations like Tairāwhiti.

3. GDC, central government, Māori land owners (including iwi entities, trusts and incorporations), Pākehā land owners and forestry companies (local, national and overseas owned) all have forestry investments and will be impacted if production forestry was more restricted in the region. We need an independent review of the systems that are failing and what should be done to urgently fix them. 

5. Given the political and financial implications of the situation and overlapping interests involved, this petition seeks the establishment of an Independent Commission of Inquiry. The terms of reference should be set by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment given the multitude of interests / conflicts of interests  and particular environmental, economic, social and cultural context  of the region. Membership of the taskforce should ensure independent experts utilising local experts lead the process. We want to avoid central agencies, local government and business interests getting entwined in a blame game to avoid their own role in the ongoing tragedy.

7. While acknowledging the large Maori landholding in Tairawhiti, we need a bespoke solution for Tairawhiti. The current policy position needs urgent review and a new pathway to truly sustainable land use for Tairawhiti needs to be identified and committed to by all stakeholders. This could be explored through the development of the National Planning Framework required for the new resource management system.

8. Our regional investment body Trust Tairāwhiti needs to move away from investment in the forestry industry. This would be consistent with their ‘well-being ’framework’.  We urgently need to diversify the regional economy beyond pasture and production forests which are unsuitable on highly erosion-prone land in a rapidly changing climate. Trust Tairāwhiti along with GDC, other regional leadership organisations, residents, ratepayers and Central Government should prioritise a Just Transition plan with measurable milestones for creating truly sustainable employment opportunities beyond drystock farming and pine forestry.

9. A ministerial group including the Ministers for the Environment, Climate Change, Employment, Primary Industries, Civil Defence and Māori Development could support the development of sustainable alternatives to the current situation and keep a watching brief on the outcomes of all processes. Should regional entities be too slow to respond, the Minister for the Environment could enact his powers under s24a, s25, 25(a) and 25(b) s27 and 27a of the Resource Management Act. GDC needs to urgently conduct required plan reviews given the regional resource management framework was designed nearly 30 years ago and hasn’t been updated since!

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