(Section 15 of the RPS)

Monitoring is an important part of all systems that involve planning and organised decision making processes. It enables the parties concerned to check on the progress being made towards the attainment of particular goals or objectives and the effectiveness of related policies and procedures. The RMA recognises the value of monitoring and gives local authorities major responsibilities in this area.

While the RMA's definition of "environment" is very broad, councils are only required to monitor the "state of the environment to the extent that it is appropriate to enable them to effectively carry out their functions". Sections 35, 62, 67 and 75 of the RMA reinforce the need for monitoring of policy statements and plans promulgated by local authorities. Plans are required to specifically outline the procedures to be used in monitoring and reviewing the effectiveness of policies and methods in such documents. In addition, Section 79 of the RMA requires regional councils to commence a full review of its RPS no later than 10 years after the statement becomes operative.

Anticipated Outcomes

Not stated for this section. This section contains policy related to resource management procedures and processes rather than policy relating to the use, development and protection of resources and therefore does not have anticipated environmental outcomes.

Policy Mix

The objectives for the monitoring and review section are:

· the integrated and cost effective monitoring of resource management activities in Northland;

· the provision of an adequate information base on which sound resource management policies and associated decisions can be made.

The policy approach for state of the environment monitoring (Policy 15.4 (a)) is to establish a broad regional monitoring programme in consultation with other interested parties, integrated with other monitoring activities undertaken in the region.

This section includes policy direction to monitor the effectiveness of the RPS and regional plans and undertake appropriate changes and reviews.

The policy approach for consent monitoring (Policy 15.4 (c)) is a combination of councils undertaking their required monitoring and in appropriate cases, having consent holders monitor their own use of resources.

The monitoring and review section contains 13 individual methods of implementation that flow from the policy direction discussed above.

What has worked well in this section?

The NRC's Environmental Hotline works well. Consent monitoring undertaken by NRC staff also generally works well but there is currently no process to feed the results of consent monitoring into the plan development process.

What has not worked in this section?

Annual reports on effectiveness of policy statement and plans have not been produced. Likewise, annual reports on monitoring of resource consents have not been produced by local authorities.

The monitoring of cumulative effects of resource consents and permitted activities has not been undertaken.

General comments on this section:

This section is not overly useful as it generally repeats the requirements of section 35 of the RMA for monitoring.

Is this section Efficient and Effective?

Monitoring and review of the RPS and resource management plans has only been moderately effective, due to limited resourcing and a lack of implementation of the objectives and policies. A co-ordinated monitoring approach has not been achieved and has resulted in a limited ability to relate the RPS outcomes to the State of the Environment Monitoring Report. Overall, this section has not been effective as it has generally repeated the requirements of the RMA and has not provided for integrated or co-ordinated monitoring specific to the Northland region.

Emerging Issues for this section?

More specific policies and methods may be useful – giving direction on what is to be monitored and how it should be monitored in order to achieve a consistent approach across the region and simplify the ability to create an integrated state of the environment report.

Some Tangata Whenua have aspirations to be involved in environmental monitoring that occurs within their rohe. The potential of these partnerships should be explored as it could result in positive social, cultural and environmental gains.

There is a view that many of the Environmental Results Anticipated (ERA) in the RPS are aspirational, which makes them difficult to monitor. Consequently, the 2nd Generation RPS needs to have measurable environmental results, which can provide meaningful information for decision-making.

Conclusions

Monitoring is an on-going and systematic process and is integral to sound resource management planning. The majority of this section has been actively implemented. As mentioned above, the 2nd Generation RPS should have more target driven environmental results, which will assist with the plan-monitor-review process. Overall the effective of this section has been limited as it does little more than repeat the requirements of section 35 of the RMA.