05 February 2016

Pest management - community meetings are on

Environment Canterbury today encouraged all farmers and the wider community to participate in the first step of a comprehensive review of the current Canterbury Regional Pest Management Plan by attending community meetings.

The Regional Council released a discussion document on the future of pest management in Canterbury late last year and is now seeking feedback.

Commissioner Tom Lambie said pest management is an important part of the sustainable management of natural resources. “Our Biosecurity programme aims to achieve smart management of pest risks in Canterbury,” Mr Lambie said.

The purpose of the discussion document is to seek the community’s views on the best approaches to be taken in a new plan.

“Canterbury has committed significant resources to the management of legacy pests that affect production land, with limited success,” Mr Lambie said. “Resources are currently committed mainly to compliance inspections, which constrains work to prevent, detect and act on new pests arriving in our region.”

Over the last 20 years, pest management in Canterbury has primarily focused on the management of legacy pests that affect production land, such as broom, gorse, rabbits, Bennett’s wallaby and nassella tussock.

Environment Canterbury is proposing a change in the way we undertake pest management, focusing more on preventing new pests entering the region. “This would help us become more resilient, with pests managed for both production land and biodiversity protection purposes,” Mr Lambie said.

This new direction would place more responsibility on individual landowners to manage pests on their properties themselves, with compliance inspections focusing more on preventing pest spread to neighbouring properties. The review will also make sure our plan is aligned with neighbouring regions’ to help prevent new pests arriving here.

“This presents an opportunity for more proactive initiatives, such as on-farm biosecurity and the inclusion of pest management in farm environment plans,” Mr Lambie said.

“Environment Canterbury would have more of a leadership role, particularly in the early stages of pest infestation, with more emphasis on advice, education and working with the community.”

Environment Canterbury now seeks the community’s views on whether there is a need for change in the focus and resourcing of its Biosecurity programme.

“Contributions to the discussion document will provide us with valuable feedback to help position the new plan to meet the community’s future needs,” Tom Lambie concluded. “We look forward to hearing your views.”

The discussion document is available at www.ecan.govt.nz/pestreview. Contributions will be received until 28 February 2016. Community meetings are coming up soon – see the schedule below. A new proposed Regional Pest Management Plan for Canterbury will be notified in mid 2016.

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