5.3.11 Weeds and pests.
5.3.11.1 Desired environmental outcomes
The extent and spread of plant and animal pests not increased as a result of rural subdivision.
5.3.11.2 Regional council methods
Regional pest management strategies: The main means of managing plant and animal pests is through the Biosecurity Act 1993. Section 71 of the Biosecurity Act enables any person to prepare a proposal for a regional pet management strategy, and section 72 enables a regional council to notify such a strategy.
Regional Councils are the responsible agency for processing and adopting a Regional Pest Management Strategy. They may also undertake pest management actions.
A pest management strategy must specify, amongst other things, the animal and/or plant pests which are intended to be controlled, and the principal measures to be taken to achieve the objectives of the strategy for each pest (section 76). The strategy may include rules to, amongst other things, require landowners to keep records, to take action to control pests, or not to do things which might spread the pest.
As examples, a regional pest management strategy could require landowners or occupiers to:
- destroy all pests of a specific type on their property;
- control pests on their property;
- develop a management plan for their particular property with the regional council;
- control specific plant pests within a certain distance of their property boundary (to control spread from property to property);
- report to the regional council the incidence of particular pests on their property.
A regional council has powers under the Biosecurity Act to issue directions to land owners or occupiers to carry out pest management procedures, or where these are not carried out to enter onto land and carry out the work itself. Landowners or occupiers who fail to comply with a direction can be prosecuted.
Regional council authorised officers may also inspect properties to locate pests. As an example, the Auckland Regional Plant Pest Management Strategy contains a policy 18.2.1 that every property over one hectare (outside the "inner" areas of the region) shall be inspected at least once during the five year life of the Strategy.
5.3.11.3 District council methods
Consideration of the control of plant and animal pests could be incorporated into conditions on subdivision consents in the rural environment. This has been discussed in the section on biodiversity above. Conditions could include:
- covenants on titles created which require that the landowner maintain the property free from noxious weeds or specified pest plants;
- conditions on subdivision consents that require that before the subdivision can be "signed off" and a section 224(c) certificate [ Section 224(c) of the RMA provides that a certificate must be signed by the territorial authority confirming that the conditions of the subdivision consent have been complied with before title can be issued] issued, the property is to be free of noxious weeds. There is often a considerable time lag between preparing for subdivision applications, gaining consent, sale of property, and property development, during which time there is minimal land management and noxious weeds may spread. Requiring control of weeds upon title transfer enables the council to have a good picture of the state of the property (useful for Biosecurity Act functions) and may help ensure that the new owners are aware of the weeds issue and continue with active plant pest management;
- restrictions on the keeping of certain animal pests such as ferrets as a condition of subdivision;
- restrictions on the keeping of cats and dogs in areas adjacent to significant indigenous habitats as a condition of subdivision.
Contact for Enquiries
MAF Information Services
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PO Box 2526
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