Proposal for a Southland Pest Management Plan

Harmful species – animal, plant and marine – pose a majorthreat to our region, both ecologically and economically.

Our Regional Pest Management Strategy has been reviewed to meet the requirements in the Government’s National Policy Direction for Pest Management and a new Southland Regional Pest Management Plan and Biosecurity Strategy developed.

The strategy outlines how Environment Southland will oversee the management of biosecurity over the next five years, including key objectives and how these may be achieved. It’s our vision for biosecurity into the future and, together with the Southland Regional Pest Management Plan, tells Environment Southland’s biosecurity story.

The new Pest Plan looks quite different to the previous Pest Management Strategy because it contains fewer specified pests and rules. This is largely because many harmful species do not need regional rules to manage them.

Developing our Plan has been a long process,involving many different levels of consultation with a variety of groups and individuals over several years.

The proposal was released for public consultation, along with a draft Biosecurity Strategy, in August 2018 and received over 100 written submissions, with more than 20 submissions presented in person to the hearing panel.

The hearing panel read all the written submissions and listened to the views of those who submitted in person during the hearing process. All of these were carefully considered while developing the final recommendations for the council.

The Council accepted the decision on 22 May and agreed to notify the final plan on 14 June. The plan was subject to appeals until 5 July. By this date, no appeals had been received, so the plan has become operative.

We are extremely grateful for all the effort the community has put into being part of this process. Building the most effective Pest Management Plan for Southland requires community input and consideration of a wide range of views. The submissions process is an important part of that and the feedback from everybody has helped us create an effective plan to support Southland’s biosecurity requirements for the next 10 years.

Documents

Southland Biosecurity Strategy 2019-2024
Southland Regional Pest Management Plan - 2019-2029
Southland Regional Pest Management Plan - Decision Table
Southland Regional Pest Management Plan - Decision Report
Southland Regional Pest Management Plan - Tracked changes (10.8 MB)
Public Notice (Newspaper) - Decision on the Southland Regional Pest Management Plan 2019-2029
Public Notice (Full) - Decision on the Southland Regional Pest Management Plan 2019-2029

Supporting documents

Proposal for a Southland Regional Pest Management Plan
Proposed Biosecurity Strategy (including Operations Plan)
Cost Benefit Analysis Part A
Cost Benefit Analysis Part B
Strategy Summary
Consultation document