Greenpeace Aotearoa has branded the NZ Government’s Cabinet decision to strip regional and district councils of their broad discretion to set tougher local forestry rules a “slap in the face” to communities still recovering from Cyclone Gabrielle, with the same package repealing fencing rules that kept beef cattle and deer out of natural wetlands across Aotearoa. That is according to a statement from Greenpeace Aotearoa campaigner Gen Toop, who confirmed Cabinet had pushed the package through on 4 May despite most submitters opposing the changes when the public consultation closed on 27 July 2025.
Wood Central understands the amendments target Clause 6(1)(a) and 6(4A) of the National Environmental Standards for Commercial Forestry (NES-CF), re-focusing council stringency on severe erosion risk in its own right rather than the broad ability to tie any aspect of commercial forestry to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management. The two clauses were inserted in October 2023 following the Ministerial Inquiry into Land Use (MILU) recommendations after Cyclone Gabrielle, with the Coalition’s reset reversing the previous Government’s move to let local authorities set their own afforestation rules and slash conditions outside the national framework.
Toop has tied the rollback directly to Cyclone Gabrielle, which struck Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay in February 2023 and cost New Zealand an estimated NZ$14.5 billion in clean-up after forestry slash and erosion tore through homes, rivers and infrastructure across both regions. “It is reckless and dangerous to weaken forestry rules,” Toop said.
Forestry and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay first opened the consultation in May 2025, arguing that too many councils were using vague discretion to block forestry operations that met national environmental standards. The Minister said the reset would restore regulatory consistency for plantation operators and wood processors after the October 2023 stringency provisions came into force. “This Government backs the fibre sector,” McClay said.
The Cabinet decision also repeals fencing regulations that excluded beef cattle and deer from natural wetlands, with Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard arguing that low-intensity grazing provides natural weed control and that mandatory fencing costs can outweigh the environmental benefit. “Costs of protecting the area could be out of proportion to the environmental gain,” Hoggard said.
It comes as Wood Central reported on the Coalition Government’s wider Resource Management Act reform programme, with the proposed “regulatory relief” mechanism threatening to force councils to compensate forestry and farming companies if they introduce stricter local rules than the national baseline, a scheme Greenpeace argues would convert local environmental protection into ratepayer-funded corporate compensation.
With less than ten per cent of New Zealand’s original wetlands now remaining and a NZ$14.5 billion Cyclone Gabrielle clean-up bill still being paid down across Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay, the final NES-CF stringency restrictions and wetland fencing repeal now sit with regional councils, opposed by Greenpeace Aotearoa, Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti and the submitter majority that filed against the package through the 27 July 2025 consultation close.
