NATURE
Healthy Land & Water
A plan to protect the places that make New Zealand special.
New Zealand is home to an extraordinary range of landscapes and wildlife found nowhere else on Earth. As Kiwis, we have a responsibility to protect the rivers, forests and animals that define our way of life. But half of our waterways are unswimmable and nearly 4,000 of our native species are facing extinction.
We know how to turn this around.
We know how to protect our soils, regenerate our forests and restore our wetlands. We can manage climate-charged flooding, draw-down carbon, control invasive pests and back our farmers to keep growing the world’s best food and fibre.
To stand up for nature, Opportunity will back conservation and landscape restoration projects, restore the health of our rivers through strong governance and smarter incentives, and properly value nature as critical climate resilient infrastructure.
Let’s leave New Zealand better than we found it.
THREE PILLARS HEALTHIER LAND & RIVERS
Pillar 1
Restore our land and protect native biodiversity
New Zealand's natural capital has been undervalued for decades, and our ecosystems are paying the price. To restore the places we’ve lost, and protect what’s left, Opportunity will:
- Increase conservation funding and support landowners to protect Significant Natural Areas through profitable biodiversity credit markets.
- Support landowners and communities to explore agroforestry, native forestry and regenerative land-use diversifications, backed by a new, large-scale research fund led by the agriculture and horticulture sectors.
- Implement a National Native Forestry Strategy to support catchment groups, set stronger standards for plantation forestry and tackle invasive pests and weeds.
Pillar 2
Restore water quality and fix freshwater governance
To restore the health of our rivers for swimming, farming and community safety, Opportunity will:
- Reinstate Te Mana o te Wai to put the health of waterways first in freshwater policy and introduce stronger enforcement for polluters.
- Reduce waterborne pollution using market-based systems (like proven cap-and-trade schemes for nitrates and phosphates) and scaling up riparian planting and wetland restoration.
- Support smarter water use and storage, including embedding rainwater harvesting in the Building Code and encouraging on-farm water storage that also supports native biodiversity.
- Implement a circular plastic economy strategy, built around a national container deposit scheme and protecting our waterways, wetlands and coastlines from plastic pollution.
Pillar 3
Value nature as infrastructure
Nature provides enormous economic value, cleaner air, flood protection, water filtration and coastal defence. To put nature on New Zealand’s balance sheet, Opportunity will:
- Instruct Treasury to recognise natural infrastructure as a genuine economic asset
- Establish a $500 million Nature-based Solutions Fund for councils, iwi, hapū and communities.
- Strengthen environmental checks on major decisions by limiting ministerial override on fast-track projects and protecting councils' ability to set higher environmental standards.
Nature, and the next generation, need us to act now.
