Group set for $40m lake quality scheme

BIG TASK: Te Taru White says the idea is to incentivise effective land use change through the fund. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER

The group responsible for administering a $40 million fund to encourage land owners in the Rotorua catchment to reduce their nitrogen discharge will soon start the process of handing out some of the money.

The appointment of Te Taru White as the programme director for the Lake Rotorua Incentives Scheme is being seen as a major step forward towards the board's target to achieve a permanent 100 tonne reduction in the discharge of nitrogen to Lake Rotorua by December 2022.

Mr White's role will be to support the Lake Rotorua Incentives Board, which has a $40 million budget to encourage and incentivise land use and management changes to meet the targets.

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"A critical part of this role will be to build respectful relationships with landowners and other key stakeholders, to identify opportunities and to secure nitrogen reduction," said board chairwoman Judith Stanway.

She said the appointment of the board, and more recently Mr White, meant things could now move forward.

"Now we can actually do something. Up until this point, it has all been talk. Now it is time to make some things happen."

Mr White said the nature of the role encouraged him to apply and he saw it as an opportunity to create a legacy.

"It is a big task, critical in that is relationships."

He said land owners were required to reduce their nitrogen discharge through legislation, but the $40 million fund was about getting them further below that level on a voluntary basis.

Mr White said he was born and raised in Rotorua and saw the new role as an important opportunity to help improve the quality of the lakes, while at the same time continuing sustainable development of the resources.

He was previously involved as a member of the Lake Rotorua Stakeholder Advisory Group which worked on ways to improve water quality.

Mr White said the idea was to incentivise effective land use change through the fund. He said he hoped the fund would encourage people to look at different land use options with ideas like forestry or manuka honey.

There is also limited, separate funding available for carrying out research to determine whether ideas are feasible.

"It has to be a sustainable, permanent change."

He said it was important to realise that the $40 million was "sacrosanct" for purchasing nitrogen, and wasn't going to be used for administration or other costs.

Deals would be negotiated on individual basis with each landowner.

He said there were "quite a few steps" between talks being started with landowners and funding being handed out.

The incentives programme is part of an integrated framework jointly funded by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and the Government to reduce total nitrogen discharges to Lake Rotorua to a sustainable level of 435 tonnes by 2032.