1.6 Codes of Practice and Other Good Practice Initiatives

It is acknowledged that the initiatives of others can be more effective than rules developed by the Regional Council. For this reason, standards produced by Standards New Zealand, industry-developed codes of practice and other good practice initiatives are encouraged and supported by the Regional Council.

The Regional Council is especially supportive of codes of practice or good practice initiatives that:

1. are consistent with the RMA and the environmental provisions of this Plan
2. are prepared by the users, for the users
3. in cases where they are used as conditions in a rule or resource consent, ensure that they satisfy legal tests.

The Regional Council will recognise codes of practice and other good practice initiatives in one or more of the following ways:

1. utilising codes of practice produced by industry groups and standards produced by Standards New Zealand in permitted activity rule conditions, where appropriate
2. preparing rules requiring resource consents that give favourable treatment to activities complying with codes of practice or other good practice initiatives
3. granting consents for longer durations for activities complying with codes of practice or other good practice initiatives
4. recognising codes of practice and other good practice initiatives in consent conditions
5. reducing compliance monitoring, especially where the codes of practice or other good practice initiatives include a component of independent audit.

The Regional Council has a particular interest in collaborating with resource users undertaking such activities as forestry, pastoral farming on hill country land that is subject to a risk of accelerated erosion*, dairy farming*, pig farming, Territorial Authority utilities, and river and drainage scheme works. The purpose of this collaboration is to develop and recognise codes of practice, training programmes and other good practice initiatives that complement changes needed to make progress on the Big Four issues. The Regional Council will also willingly be involved in the preparation of any code of practice or other good practice initiative that is likely to be of environmental benefit in the Region.