Environmental Law Initiative - Aotearoa NZ

74 countries have now ratified a landmark treaty to protect the high seas. Why hasn’t NZ? The High Seas Treaty comes into force in January. New Zealand lags behind on several fronts, including marine protection and recognition of Māori customary rights.

"New Zealand was an active participant in the drafting of the High Seas Treaty and an early signatory in September 2023. A total of 74 nations have now ratified it, but New Zealand is not one of them."
Why not?
#HighSeasTreaty #nzpol

The group’s senior researcher, Anna Sintenie, said there were several issues with the way the court processed the consent. “Our view is that the effects from the nitrate discharge associated with the MHV Water Ltd scheme are not inevitably lawful,” she said, even under the changed law.

Enviro group back-footed as freshwater pollution limits loosened An ongoing battle over Canterbury nitrate discharge enters a new chapter after law changes influenced a High Court decision

”It’s a very troubling situation, and Environment Canterbury has not been getting it right in decisions on large-scale discharges, as our court cases have shown.”

buff.ly/dUHCHe7

#nitrates
#canterbury
#freshwater

Fighting nitrate pollution in Canterbury: MHV — Environmental Law Initiative In May 2025, we challenged Environment Canterbury in the High Court over the Council’s decision to grant a nitrogen discharge consent to MHV Water Ltd. We are now appealing the High Court’s decision.

Clean drinking water is a human right and our precious freshwater ecosystems must be protected.

You can read more about our appeal on our website at www.eli.org.nz/cases/mhv

We have filed an appeal over the High Court's decision not to overturn ECan's MHV nitrate discharge consent (despite the Court finding the consent to be unlawful).

#freshwater
#canterbury
#nitrates

Reto Blattner de-Vries | Legal Advisor (Environmental and Te Tiriti o Waitangi) September 25, 2025

What will it take address the proliferation of kina barrens across the country?

Our Legal Advisor, Reto Blattner de-Vries spoke with Radio Waatea this morning about the situation & what action is needed to restore our moana.

Take a listen here:
waateanews.com/2025/09/25/r...

#kina #kinabarrens

A landmark win for our moana and all that lives there 🌍 We congratulate all of those around the world who have been working tirelessly to make this treaty a reality. We must protect the ocean to protect life on this planet.

buff.ly/KBXijb9

#globaloceanstreaty
#ocenprotection

As the article shows, what happens here with orange roughy is being watched by others around the world - due to both the destructive nature of- bottom trawling and the overfishing of orange roughy that has taken place. It's time Aotearoa NZ learns from the past and gets this right. #orangeroughy

Earlier this year, we went to the High Court to challenge a previous decision for this fishery, which in our view failed to address the impact of bottom-trawling on the marine environment. It also didn't go far enough in allowing orange roughy populations to recover. We are waiting on the judgment.

Inside the battle over trawling a 200-year-old deep-sea fish New Zealand's chequered history of trawling for valuable orange roughy has set conservationists against fishers for years

Before the end of the month, the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries Shane Jones will sign off on a new catch limit for orange roughy in the area ORH 3B. It is the largest orange roughy fishery in the world, covering the Chatham Rise and southern NZ. dialogue.earth/en/ocean/ins...

Climate litigation: Holding the government to account for delivering an effective climate plan — Environmental Law Initiative With our friends, Lawyers for Climate Action NZ, we are taking legal action against the Minister of Climate Change over ‘glaring holes’ in the Government’s climate plan.

As it stands, the Government’s emissions reduction plan will carry huge consequences for our country. That’s why we are taking legal action to hold the Minister of Climate Change to account.
Read more at www.eli.org.nz/cases/erp2

Under the Climate Change Response Act, the Govt has to have a credible emissions reduction plan for Aotearoa that will meet our climate targets and set us up for success.
Yet, the Government’s plan, in our view, is neither credible or capable of achieving the purpose, which is to reduce emissions.

It then developed the second emissions reduction plan which is almost devoid of actions or policies that will reduce emissions at their source. Climate Change Minister Simon Watts instead relied heavily on offsetting the country’s emissions with forestry plantations.

As a wealthy country, we need to meet our climate targets with real action, as part of the global effort to limit warming to no more than 1.5C.

Yet, in its first 8 months, the Luxon-led Govt cancelled 35 climate policies & actions which were part of the first Emissions Reduction Plan.

We now have a court date!
From March 16th - 18th, 2026, along with our friends at Lawyers for Climate Action NZ Inc we'll be challenging the Minister for Climate Change in the Wellington High Court.

This will be a crucial moment where the Govt's emission's reduction plan will face legal scrutiny.

Adverse effects must be avoided wherever possible, and where harm has already occurred, it must be remedied. Only then will hoiho have a genuine chance to survive and thrive once more.

We have not yet seen the specific details of this closure, but on the face of it, the Minister’s decision does not go far enough to protect the northern population of hoiho from the brink of extinction. It is incomplete.

In this case, near enough is not good enough.

The hoiho population has collapsed 80% since 2008, from 739 breeding pairs to just 143. A further 3 hoiho deaths due to fishing in the second quarter of 2025.
“The collapse is such that even a single death caused by fishing could have a disproportionate impact on the survivability of hoiho.

We welcome the closure but are concerned it covers only part of hoiho nesting habitat, leaving much of the population exposed to the risk of being caught as bycatch elsewhere.
There are nesting hoiho around Rakiura, in Southland, & north of the Otago peninsula, why are those hoiho not protected?

Surprise penguin fishing ban from pro-industry minister Shane Jones has ordered an emergency closure to protect hoiho - but the move is expected to disappoint conservationists who sought wider protections.

Today’s announcement of an emergency three-month closure of set-net fishing around the Otago Peninsula by Minister for Oceans and Fisheries Shane Jones will protect some hoiho, while leaving others unprotected.

www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...

#penguins #hoiho

Beyond an emergency closure, we have asked Ministers to put in place a mortality limit of zero as part of a comprehensive population management plan.

Hoiho are now at their incubation stage, with nesting parents taking turns to forage up to 25 km from their nesting areas. We are concerned that any further delay in action will have irreversible consequences for hoiho. Ministers must act expeditiously to fulfil their legal obligations.

As Minister for Oceans and Fisheries, Jones has a legal duty to avoid, remedy and mitigate fishing threats to hoiho. As Minister for Conservation, Potaka has a duty to protect wildlife, such as hoiho. The nesting season has already begun.

Any decisions about closures need to be regulated, so they can be properly monitored and implemented, as well as ensuring they cover the entirety of hoiho nesting and breeding habitat. Minister Shane Jones and Minister Tama Potaka have sat with this decision for several months now.

Fishers back emergency closure for hoiho, piling pressure on ministers The industry will immediately suspend set-netting between Taiaroa Head and Green Island, and restrict fishing to night-time only in all other Otago waters.

Momentum for action is growing.

The support of Otago set-net fishers for emergency closures of set-net fishing shows action to urgently protect hoiho has broad backing, and it is time for Ministers to act.

#Hoiho #penguins
www.thepost.co.nz/environment/...

Because there are so few Māui dolphins left, even one death is a catastrophic event to the population viability. They need intensive conservation effort to prevent their extinction. A credible Threat Management Plan must restore Māui and Hector's populations so that they are no longer threatened.

In a separate case, ELI is challenging the lawfulness of the Hector’s and Māui Dolphin Threat Management Plan. ELI alleges the plan fails to protect the dolphins adequately from fishing-related deaths. There are areas where we know Māui dolphins travel to, but there is no mortality limit in place.

Māui and Hector’s Dolphin Defenders, who filed the case, said “It’s now NZ's turn to protect the whole dolphin habitat in its own laws.” Our congratulations to Māui and Hector’s Dolphin Defenders, and their legal representatives, Earthjustice and Law of the Wild.

The United States Court of International Trade reviewed whether New Zealand had sufficient regulation in place to limit the killing or serious injury of marine mammals to near zero. By the New Zealand government’s own admission, it does not.

A blue tile with an image of a Māui dolphin, with the text "International news", "A US Court has ruled that New Zealand fish exports fail to meet the United States Marine Mammal Protection Act — because NZ is not sufficiently protecting the critically endangered Māui dolphins from fishing related-deaths."

Some good news for Māui #dolphins. This decision is a reminder that the world is watching. A US Court ruled that NZ fish exports fail to meet the United States Marine Mammal Protection Act – because NZ is not sufficiently protecting critically endangered Māui dolphins from fishing related-deaths.