1   To advance awareness and discussion on catchment and coastal issues by:

• preparing submissions on behalf of ECO, on appropriate and relevant topics

• leading discussion and responses to forward thinking and difficult (‘pot boiler’) issues within the environmental NGO community

2.   To improve the opportunities for member groups (and individuals) to contribute to NGO work on catchment & coastal issues, especially for national and regional scale issues for which there may be no existing interest group in a position to advocate for potential solutions or otherwise the government or other stakeholders to account.

NZCPS Issues and Options Project
“Implications of the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement 2010 for New Zealand communities”
The ECO “Coastal and Catchment” working group has produced an “Issues and Options” paper (3700KB) to stimulate discussion on how the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement (NZCPS) might be implemented. The aim is to raise awareness of both the NZCPS and coastal issues with the public and help people consider what they might like to see happen in their local areas. Read an Executive Summary of the project here. Or engage in discussion on the forum.

Contribute your thoughts!
The project is set up to be interactive with the public via the Forum functions on the ECO website.

For each policy topic we have created a discussion thread on the Forum using our analysis of issues and options as the starting point.
Thoughts and comments of others will add greatly to the picture and will create a good resource for the people interested in these topics in the future, such as people who are preparing submissions on local policies and plans.

Article from the June 2012 issue of ECOlink:

Background information
The New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement (NZCPS) is a document that would be of interest to most New Zealanders since it affects the way we manage our coastal environment. Recently, the NZ Government has issued a new NZCPS; only the second in our history. It contains significant differences from the earlier NZCPS 1994 and these will work their way into our resource management system over the coming months.

These changes will manifest themselves in new policies, plans and proposed methods throughout the country, particularly under the auspices of regional councils and territorial authorities. In developing and approving these changes there will be opportunities for public involvement and input. Consequently it is important that community groups and general public are well prepared to respond and participate.

Awareness of matters raised in the new NZCPS 2010, outstanding issues, and an understanding of the range of options that exist to address these issues will all assist in empowering community input. The objective of this paper is to contribute to that process by providing an overview of the NZCPS 2010 and its implications.