Ngā Mahere Pāmu Wai Māori Freshwater Farm Plans

About Freshwater Farm Plans

Freshwater Farm Plans (FWFPs) help farmers and growers identify, manage and reduce risks to fresh water. FWFPs are unique to a farm or growing business. They contain information about the land, water and farming or growing activities.

FWFPs help businesses learn how activities on their property affect fresh water and what can be done over time to manage those risks. They also help improve the overall quality of fresh water in Auckland.

Benefits of having a Freshwater Farm Plan

Freshwater Farm Plans:

• help identify the parts of a farm that have the most impact on local waterways
• record good practices already in place on a farm, like planting native plants around the edges of waterways, fertiliser management and wastewater system improvements
• promote better soil management, erosion control and water use
• work alongside existing farm and waterway programmes, helping reduce repeated work
• helps you show your business is meeting regulations when required. 

Businesses that need a FWFP

A business needs a FWFP if it has:

• any commercial dairy supply farm
• 50 hectares or more of:
  • land used to graze livestock
  • land used to grow crops 
  • any combination of livestock, crops or horticultural land
  • permanent crops such as vineyards or orchards
• five hectares or more of horticultural land (used to grow vegetables or berries).

If you are unsure whether you need a Freshwater Farm Plan, email freshwaterfarmplans@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz or talk to your farm advisor or environmental consultant. You can also visit the Ministry for the Environment website.

What a Freshwater Farm Plan includes

A Freshwater Farm Plan must:

• identify how farm activities could affect fresh water 
• consider catchment information provided by Auckland Council
• include a plan that explains what you are already doing to manage risks to fresh water, what you will do next and timing and priorities for each task.

Understand catchment context

Auckland Council has developed a catchment context viewer to help businesses find the environmental, cultural and regulatory information needed to develop or update a Freshwater Farm Plan and create catchment reports.

The online viewer provides information about catchment boundaries and freshwater values, known pressures on fresh water within the catchment and relevant regional objectives, limits and priorities. Reports show what is happening in local catchment areas so plans match local conditions and help maintain quality fresh water.

The government refers to this as understanding a farm's 'catchment context'. 

How to put together a Freshwater Farm Plan

1. Create a map of your property that shows your land use, waterways, drains, critical source areas, wastewater systems, crossings, stock exclusion and native planting around the edges of waterways.
2. Identify where soil, nutrients, sediment or faecal contamination could reach waterways. Pay attention to higher‑risk areas such as winter‑grazed paddocks or places where cultivation happens close to streams.
3. List the actions needed to reduce these risks. For each action say whether it is new or already in place, what risks it addresses and where it will happen on the farm. Set a timeframe for completing each action.
4. Work with an approved industry organisation or advisor to review or certify the plan if required.

Certified plans and auditing

Some farm or growing operations will need to certify their Freshwater Farm Plans in order to meet the rules. We also expect auditors to check Freshwater Farm Plans to make sure farmers are carrying out the actions in their plans. These will be set through secondary regulations, expected in the second half of 2026.

We will add further information once these regulations are confirmed.