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Conference Session Spotlight: Indigenous Biodiversity Under The New System
Aotearoa is facing a biodiversity crisis of epic proportions – with some of the highest numbers of threatened species in the world and continued ecosystem loss.
The Government’s proposed Natural Environment Bill and Planning Bill will have significant implications for how indigenous biodiversity is protected, managed and restored.
New ‘regulatory relief’ frameworks could see councils having to compensate private landowners when applying indigenous biodiversity rules to their property, including Significant Natural Area overlays, urban tree protections and vegetation clearance rules. Will this chill planning controls for indigenous biodiversity, leaving vulnerable species and habitats unprotected?
Environmental limits will have to be set for indigenous biodiversity, but only after balancing economic and social considerations. Regulators are then constrained in how they defend those limits. Does the system truly create an environmental bottom-line for indigenous biodiversity?
A specific aim of no net loss of indigenous biodiversity is ambitiously proposed, but how strong will this direction be in practice when it has no priority in the shopping list of other system goals? How is no net loss even calculated?
This session will unpack what the resource management reforms mean for our precious flora and fauna. Will the Bills be positive, or a step backwards? How can we ensure that the new system adequately safeguards indigenous biodiversity?
Session 3:
Indigenous biodiversity under the new
system
Wednesday 24 June 2026, 11.40am -
1.00pm
International keynote: How biodiversity net gain became law in the UK, Professor David Hill, Founder of the Environment Bank and architect of biodiversity net gain (via livestream)
What are the implications of the new resource management system for indigenous biodiversity? Greg Severinsen, Reform Director, Environmental Defence Society
No net biodiversity loss: How will this work in practice? Matt Baber, Principal Ecologist & Director, Alliance Ecology
Regulatory takes and indigenous biodiversity: Will there be a chilling effect on council regulation? Rehette Stoltz, Mayor, Gisborne District Council
Environmental Defence Society
EDS speaks for the environment. It has influence.
Since 1971, EDS has been driving environmental protection in Aotearoa New Zealand
through law and policy change. That's why it's one of this country's most influential non-
profit organisations when it comes to achieving better environmental outcomes.
EDS has expertise in key disciplines including law, planning, landscape and science. It
operates as a policy think-tank, a litigation advocate, and a collaborator – bringing together
the private and public sectors for constructive engagement.
EDS runs conferences and seminars on topical issues, including an annual Environmental
Summit and the Climate Change and Business Conference.
EDS is a registered charity and donations to it are tax-deductible.
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Wellington City Council: Statement From The Wellington Mayoral Forum On Options For Regional Governance Reform
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Greenpeace: New Climate Report Yet More Reason To Reduce Dairy Herd
Better Public Media: Opposing Plans To Scrap The BSA
