Freshwater and Marine at DOC Lian Butcher Director Aquatic

Overarching drivers for our freshwater work National-scale freshwater reforms Minister of Conservation has priority to improve freshwater habitats and to ensure conservation values are appropriately considered in policy development DOC has been given a contingency budget for biodiversity giving possibility to scale up our freshwater capability DOC has stretch goals of restoring 50 freshwater ecosystems from mountains to the sea, and enhancing the populations of 90% of our threatened species. At Risk catchments MFE and MPI are leading work on national-scale freshwater reforms (focused mainly on the RMA and related national instruments), and DOC will play a key role in aspects of these reforms (e.g. co-leading work on wetlands and estuaries) MOC – includes - updating the law and regulations protecting indigenous fish, whitebait management review

What this means for DOC? Clear on our freshwater role at DOC Clear on our priority outcomes Focus on partnerships

Enhancing biodiversity by protecting and restoring freshwater ecosystems Protection and sustainable management of freshwater ecosystems Managing invasive species and pests Freshwater habitat restoration Threatened species management Management of freshwater species for harvest Partnership with iwi This objective recognises that restoring harm is much harder and more expensive than preventing it in the first place, and provides strongly for DOC’s conservation and protection-focused statutory responsibilities. This objective recognises the importance of water quality (in particular factors such as sediment, nutrients or bacteria) in supporting freshwater biodiversity. This objective recognises the importance of good in-stream management – for example control of noxious fish, or fish passage structures. In a practical sense it also provides a hook into DOC’s statutory functions around freshwater fish regulations. This recognises that degraded biodiversity values are unlikely to improve by themselves without active intervention. Also, the long-term conservation of biodiversity requires more than just the reduction of negative impacts - improvement of ecosystem values is required to build future resilience.

DOC’s freshwater toolkit National policy and legislation Managing public conservation land Partnerships Operations – our boots on the ground Conservation advocacy Statutory advocacy Science and technical expertise and Mātauranga Māori National policy - Ensuring legislation and national policy enables the right outcomes and gives us the tools we need Managing public land - Protecting the values of public conservation land and recognizing its connection to surrounding environments Partnerships - Working with others to protect and restore biodiversity eg wetlands restoration partnerships with Fonterra, councils and communities Operations - Getting work done in the field eg constructing fish barrier passages, planting waterways, site based restoration, pest surveillance Conservation advocacy - Growing peoples connection to FW to promote engagement with nature Statutory advocacy - Advocating for good outcomes in formal statutory processes eg involvement in RMA plan or consent processes, limit setting etc Science and matauranga – the knowledge and expertise than underpins all our work and helps build the capability of others

Stretch Goal> Intermediate outcomes> longer term vision To restore 50 freshwater ecosystems … through collective and collaborative actions with multiple stakeholders … and increasing the number of site-based restoration initiatives”

Freshwater partnerships At Risk Catchments Other catchment/site based work Biodiversity science input and operations RMA Cycle Monitoring/big data opportunities Conservation advocacy National policy - Ensuring legislation and national policy enables the right outcomes and gives us the tools we need Managing public land - Protecting the values of public conservation land and recognizing its connection to surrounding environments Partnerships - Working with others to protect and restore biodiversity eg wetlands restoration partnerships with Fonterra, councils and communities Operations - Getting work done in the field eg constructing fish barrier passages, planting waterways, site based restoration, pest surveillance Conservation advocacy - Growing peoples connection to FW to promote engagement with nature Statutory advocacy - Advocating for good outcomes in formal statutory processes eg involvement in RMA plan or consent processes, limit setting etc Science and matauranga – the knowledge and expertise than underpins all our work and helps build the capability of others

Marine work Forming a marine strategy Bycatch work to ramp up – Anipodean Albatross, Hoiho, Sealions, Maui/Hectors, Seabirds Marine protected areas Science proposal being developed for marine mammal protection National policy - Ensuring legislation and national policy enables the right outcomes and gives us the tools we need Managing public land - Protecting the values of public conservation land and recognizing its connection to surrounding environments Partnerships - Working with others to protect and restore biodiversity eg wetlands restoration partnerships with Fonterra, councils and communities Operations - Getting work done in the field eg constructing fish barrier passages, planting waterways, site based restoration, pest surveillance Conservation advocacy - Growing peoples connection to FW to promote engagement with nature Statutory advocacy - Advocating for good outcomes in formal statutory processes eg involvement in RMA plan or consent processes, limit setting etc Science and matauranga – the knowledge and expertise than underpins all our work and helps build the capability of others

Marine opportunities Marine habitat classification and mapping Marine monitoring National policy - Ensuring legislation and national policy enables the right outcomes and gives us the tools we need Managing public land - Protecting the values of public conservation land and recognizing its connection to surrounding environments Partnerships - Working with others to protect and restore biodiversity eg wetlands restoration partnerships with Fonterra, councils and communities Operations - Getting work done in the field eg constructing fish barrier passages, planting waterways, site based restoration, pest surveillance Conservation advocacy - Growing peoples connection to FW to promote engagement with nature Statutory advocacy - Advocating for good outcomes in formal statutory processes eg involvement in RMA plan or consent processes, limit setting etc Science and matauranga – the knowledge and expertise than underpins all our work and helps build the capability of others

Thank you Arawhai kakariki