Farm Plans

Certified Farm Environment Plans (cFEPs) are currently being phased in across eight priority catchments in the region and eventually, all farms in will need a Freshwater Farm Plan (FWFP) if they meet the following criteria:

• 20 hectares or more in arable or pastoral use
• Five hectares or more in horticultural use
• 20 hectares or more of combined use.

If your farm is over 20 hectares (pastoral and/or arable land) or 5 hectares (horticulture) AND falls within one of the following catchments, you need to complete a cFEP.  

Landowners in priority catchments will need resource consent if they haven’t completed their cFEP or booked a certifier by their deadline.

Check out maps and more details about these catchments. 

Healthy freshwater supports healthy communities, a healthy environment, and a healthy economy. However, freshwater quality is declining. It is being impacted by urban development, agriculture, horticulture, forestry and other activities.

Both cFEPs and FWFPs have been introduced to:

• Stop further degradation of New Zealand’s freshwater resources and improve water quality 
• Reverse past damage
• Bring New Zealand’s freshwater resources, waterways and ecosystems to a healthy state within a generation. 

At Greater Wellington we’re dedicated to enabling continuous environmental improvement on farms that is informed by catchment scale objectives and priorities.  We’ve been helping farmers in our region with Farm Environment Plans since the 1950s. 

Farm planning in the Wellington region has been focused on engaging with landowners in catchments with the greatest need, as identified through our Whaitua process.  The aim is to implement Good Management Practices. 

Our focus remains on enabling environmental improvement on farms within the frameworks set out by new regional rules and national regulations. 

We’ve been working hard for some time to ensure that our regional cFEPs are consistent with the national FWFP requirements to help prevent duplication. A lot of work preparing for FWFPs has already happened.   

Now that the final FWFP regulations have been released, we’ll be taking some time to make things easier for you by aligning the processes and requirements for both. 

The regional rules (the Natural Resources Plan) are designed to help protect the environmental values of our region.  Farmers in priority catchments will need to have a Certified Farm Environment Plan that meets the requirements of our regional rules by the dates listed below (PDF 95 MB) .  

View the priority catchments

The simple answer is YES, but you will only need one document to meet both sets of rules. This is why we are trying to align the requirements of our cFEPs with the FWFPs. 

If you are in one of the priority catchments and need a cFEP, you will still need to meet the FWFP requirements as they roll out in your catchment.   

Freshwater Farm Plans have been legislated under Part 9A of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) and the Resource Management (Freshwater Farm Plans) Regulations 2023 (the regulations).

They are a farm planning process that puts the health of the whenua (land) and wai (water) at the centre of farm decision making.

The Government has announced its intentions to improve the Freshwater Farm Plan (FWFP) system. While this happens, the Order in Council process which sets out the next areas to go live is currently on hold. 

Once in effect, farm operators in areas where FWFPs are in effect will have 18 months to prepare their first plan for certification.

For more information on FWFPs check out the Ministry for the Environment website. 

If you have any questions, please email us at farmplans@gw.govt.nz and we’ll get in touch with you.    

You can develop parts of a cFEP yourself but will require a consultant to complete the plan.

You may already have a farm plan in place – perhaps with Fonterra, Beef & Lamb, or perhaps you have a Farm Environment Plan prepared by Greater Wellington. Your existing plan can provide helpful information to feed into your cFEP/FWFP. Your existing farm plan, and work undertaken so far, will be integrated where possible, but may not be able to be certified as a cFEP in its current format. 

Note: if you do the plan yourself you will need the risk assessment completed by a qualified nutrient advisor and the plan will need to be certified. Some certifiers are also qualified nutrient advisors, so if you need both, it is important to ask this prior to starting the process.  

There are currently no qualified FWFP certifiers and auditors. Another organisation is managing this process, and we will add them to this page as they are qualified to carry this work out.  

Farm Environment Plan Certifiers: people who can work with farmers to produce their CFEP. 

Certified Farm Nutrient Advisors: people who can complete a risk assessment required as part of your cFEP.

A list of people who have been appointed to one or both roles to date has been provided below. This list will continue to grow as further applications are processed.   

View the list of certifiers

We’ve created some tools to help make it easier to create a cFEP/FWFP. Below are two templates to help you create your plan. 

We know these things can be tricky, so if you have trouble with any of this, please email us at farmplans@gw.govt.nz. 

We know this can be complicated and we are committed to helping you have the right plans in place.

We are able to provide you free information about your property including; aerial photography, soil information, slope and NZ Land Resource Inventory information. 

If you want to find out more about Farm Plans, or connect with one of the team, please email farmplans@gw.govt.nz.

Free online map building tool and instructional video

You will find the online map building tool at the following button.

Free online map building tool

We have created a 15-minute Farm Plan Map Building instructional video to help make this part of the process a bit easier. We recommend taking the time to watch our friendly staff member Josie, show you some of the tips and tricks for building your own cFEP/FWFP maps. 

Register for a map building workshop by emailing one of our team members here farmplans@gw.govt.nz. We will book you into one of the workshops at a time that suits you. 

It's our responsibility to appoint certified farm planners (Farm Environment Plan Certifiers and Certified Farm Nutrient Advisors), and we are working with providers to get them in place quickly.

Find out how to apply