Why do we need long-term visions?

Long-term visions ensure our freshwater and coastal management is heading in the right direction. Achieving these aspirations will take time and commitment from us all.

With locally based visions, we can recognise the uniqueness of each catchment and coastal area in Tasman. We need your input to define these visions to help us protect or improve those things that make each catchment and coastal environment special.

Long-term visions created through our discussions with tangata whenua and communities will be used to apply national policy on freshwater and coastal management and set our local environmental objectives in the Tasman Environment Plan.

For freshwater we need to define visions and values at a catchment (or groups of catchments) scale called Freshwater Management Units (FMU).

Visit the FMU page for more information.

For the coastal environment we need to look strategically at where, how and when to provide for change and growth. We need to determine what activities in the coastal space are appropriate or not. This work ties in with the Council’s Coastal Management Project, which aims to enable our coastal communities to work towards long term adaptation planning for sea level rise and coastal hazards.

What is a vision? - How do we decide what ours is?

Visions are statements about how we want the future to be – in this case how do we want Tasman’s freshwater and coastal environments to be for our future and for future generations?

Have a think about how you, your family, and your friends feel about freshwater (our rivers, lakes, springs, wetlands and groundwater) and the coastal environments in Tasman:

• How do you use water in your everyday life – for your work or livelihood, for recreation and enjoyment?
• Are we using water and our coastal environments in the right way?
• Are you happy about the state they are in and the access you have to them?
• What would you change if you could?

Imagine visiting your favourite fresh or salty water places in Tasman in 10 years, in 30 years, in 100 years:

• What would you like to see, feel, or do?
• How is it different from now?

We then need to ask ourselves, what will it take to get to our vision and how long will it take us to get there?

The feedback we receive will be used by Council to develop visions that reflect what we have learned from tangata whenua and our communities.