Taiao | Environment

The Kāpiti Coast is well known for our attractive natural environment. The health of our land, water, air, soil, plants, animals, and other living organisms, including their habitats and ecosystems, underlies the prosperity and wellbeing of our community. Council, in partnership with mana whenua, has a legislative mandate to promote the environmental wellbeing of the district, both now and for the future.

As with many other parts of New Zealand, our district is under pressure from human activities.

Some of our current challenges include:

• The health of our waterways: Intensive land use causes increased runoff, nutrients, and sediments to enter our streams, lakes and waterways, undermining water quality and ecological health.
• Ecology under stress: Our history of land clearing and the introduction of pests, and ongoing human activities compromise the health and resilience of our native flora and fauna.
• Consumption and waste: Our patterns of consumption and waste degrade the life supporting capacity of the environment and compromises our health.
• Water and food insecurity: Our supplies of food and water risk being impacted by significant weather or other emergency events. We must protect our local food and water supplies, including through protecting the environment on which these depend.
• Loss of sense of place: When our environment becomes degraded, it can deeply impact our sense of identity, giving rise to feelings of loss, disconnection, and uncertainty about the future.

Future possibilities

We are working on an environment strategy to help us to better protect and restore our natural environment by focussing our broad community response towards high-impact activities. This includes understanding where we can best empower local community groups and partner with regional and central government to improve environmental outcomes.

Some of the things we might focus on are:

• Ecological corridors & Restoration - restoring native habitats and reconnecting isolated habitats
• Water sensitive urban design - designing our cities to support natural processes mitigate flooding, and improve water quality (eg green roofs)
• Regenerative agriculture - supporting farming using holistic approaches to have a positive effect on soil health, biodiversity and ecosystem balance
• Sustainable built environments - creating environmentally positive urban environments
• Circular economies - minimising waste by rethinking product design, consumption and disposal.
• Food Security- prioritising sustainable local food production.