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The wellbeing and economic prosperity of our region depend on healthy land and water. This is critical work with long-term impacts that will shape outcomes for generations to come.
The ecosystems that make up the natural environment are made up of many connected parts. This makes land and water health complex, because it is impacted by a huge range of activities as well as naturally occurring processes.
Erosion of hill country land can wash soil into waterways, and then onto other land (especially during floods).
Losing soil from our hills has a significant impact on water quality, natural habitats, infrastructure such as roads and bridges, and primary land uses adjacent to rivers that drive our regional economy.
It also increases flood and landslide risks and leaves us more exposed to the impacts of a changing climate. Tackling this issue is central to promoting land and water health both now and in the future.
Read this document to understand the background, context, and choices ahead. Everyone has a role to play, so we encourage you to read it before engaging on the major decisions Regional Council will make as part of the 2027 Long Term Plan.
When sediment shifts off hill country, it's deposited further down the catchment onto our flood plains, where many urban areas are located.
This has a big impact on our flood-risk defences and the way our waterways behave. Click the image below to see how we're working to reduce flood risk.
Once soil starts moving in Hawke’s Bay, it moves quickly, with impacts felt across the entire catchment, from the mountains to the sea. This is driven by a combination of highly erodible hill country, historic vegetation loss, intense rainfall, and low‑lying floodplains where people live and grow food.
While sediment loss is a region-wide issue, the impact plays out differently in each river catchment. This means that solutions for addressing sediment loss across the region need to:
Hawke’s Bay has an unusually high proportion of steep hill country underlain by soft, poorly consolidated rock. These materials erode much more easily than harder rock types found in other regions of New Zealand.
Erosion issues in Hawke’s Bay can mainly be attributed to the scale of historic clearance of indigenous forest for industries and communities.
Vegetation clearance, wetland drainage, engineering of waterways and reclamation of coastal margins has been necessary for the development of our towns and cities.
But this extensive modification has had a considerable impact on indigenous biodiversity and the ecosystem services we rely on for our survival.
There are proven, practical ways to reduce erosion and strengthen the resilience of our land. Well‑chosen soil conservation and land management actions can protect our waterways while supporting productive land.
Science, sector-led best practice and our lived experience all show us that an integrated, catchment-wide approach is the best way to promote land and water health.
We have options, but there’s no silver bullet.
We know that planting trees on highly erodible land in the upper part of catchments is an effective way of promoting land and water health due to the downstream effects.
Planting trees is only one intervention. There are other actions we can all take too. Taking an integrated approach means finding the balance between investments in the upper, middle and lower parts of the catchment.
The table below summarises the types of actions this can include and the benefits of each.
| Part of the landscape | What happens to sediment here | What we can do to reduce sediment loss | The benefit |
| Upper catchment (steep hill country) | Most erosion starts here with soil loss during heavy rain | Erosion-control tree planting (like poplar and willow poles), native planting, and taking the most erosion-prone land out of production | Keeps the soil on the land and reduces slips |
| Upper and mid-catchment (streams, rivers and their banks) | Loose soil washes into waterways and sediment moves downstream | Fence waterways and plant riverbanks. Use sediment traps and debris dams (small structures that slow water and catch soil) | Cleaner water, more stable banks of waterways. Stops soil reaching rivers, waterways and towns |
| Lower catchment (estuaries and the coast) | Sediment settles in sensitive environments | Restore and protect coastal areas, (such as dune and estuary habitat, pest management and planting for erosion control) | Healthier estuaries, harbours and marine life |
The work of the Regional Council to promote land and water health addresses long-term, intergenerational, and complex challenges.
We deliver these services on behalf of our community – and much of this work happens in collaboration with our community.
These work programmes have been delivered in partnership and collaboration with landowners, catchment groups, mana whenua, environmental grassroots organisations and community groups.
The benefits of investing in land and water health aren’t always immediate, but over time they show up as less damage, fewer losses (and costs), and healthier places to live.
This success is often invisible, and much of the work is also preventative. Progress is not as easy to see as when we build hard infrastructure like stopbanks. Success is often measured by what does not happen, like significant or widespread landslides in heavy rain events.
It is inevitable some sediment will continue to be lost both through natural processes and during extreme weather events. But we can reduce future impacts by making smart decisions today about our investments in land use and catchment management interventions.
As a community, we need to decide what actions to invest in now to promote land and water health for current and future generations.
Sediment is best managed by stopping it at multiple points as it moves from the hills, through rivers, and out to the coast. Community affordability concerns have prompted council to re-think who is best placed to deliver this critical work, and the most appropriate way to pay for it.
There are choices to be made about the work of the regional council in promoting land and water health. This includes the appropriate level and types of interventions the organisation should be making on behalf of the community. These are decisions that must be shaped through inclusive community conversations.
+64 6 835 9200
159 Dalton Street. Napier 4110
Private Bag 6006, Napier 4142
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