THE HUTT VALLEY ANGLER - Christchurch Fishing and Casting Club

9 August 2012
Hon Amy Adams
Parliament Office
Private Bag 18888
Parliament Buildings
WELLINGTON 6160
By email
Dear Minister
TAG Report on RMA Principles
Introduction
Fish and Game New Zealand has been an active participant in Resource
Management Act (RMA) processes since the Act’s inception and has
successfully championed the recognition and protection of a number of
New Zealand’s natural water bodies. This advocacy, which has attracted the
respect and support of the environmental and outdoor recreational NGO
community, along with that of the general public, has had the effect of
providing some significant integrity behind the ‘clean and green’ New
Zealand brand. In turn, this outcome has benefited both our exporting
industries that depend on that brand and helped underpin the Kiwi lifestyle
that is based upon our natural environment. This successful advocacy has
been possible because the
RMA has enabled sustainable management of natural and physical
resources such as freshwater by specifying the environmental constraints
necessary to sustain resources dependent upon it. The RMA has
specifically recognised, for example, as a matter to which particular
regard shall be had, the protection of the habitat of trout and salmon,
which is a statutory responsibility of Fish and Game Councils under the
Conservation Act 1987. The RMA has enabled a considerable increase in
the use and intensity of use of freshwaters since its passage in 1991, so
Fish and Game does not accept that there is need to amend the Act to
further facilitate this process. Indeed, the absence of effective limits to
freshwaters and subsequent degradation of many freshwaters despite the
current Act’s provisions suggest that, if anything, better and clearer
24
Hutt Valley Angling Club Incorporated - September 2012