This purchase was made under the newly adopted Lake Rotorua Catchment Land Acquisition Strategy, which enabled the regional council to acquire or invest in land to support nitrogen reduction targets. <\/p>\n
Bay of Plenty Regional Council chief executive Fiona McTavish. Photo \/ George Novak<\/p>\n
The council said the strategy built on the existing Lake Rotorua Incentives Scheme, \u201cwhich has already delivered significant nitrogen reductions through voluntary land use changes\u201d.<\/p>\n
Council chief executive Fiona McTavish said this was a long-term investment in the health of Lake Rotorua. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve made strong progress through incentives, regulation and engineering solutions, but we know that reaching our nitrogen targets will require every tool available. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis land purchase is a strategic investment that allows us to directly reduce nitrogen entering Lake Rotorua while supporting broader environmental and community outcomes.\u201d <\/p>\n
The property currently contributes more than six tonnes of nitrogen annually to Lake Rotorua. <\/p>\n
By retiring the land from dairy farming and restoring parts of the property to native vegetation, the council said it expected to reduce nitrogen loss by about five tonnes per year. <\/p>\n
The land use change would also ease pressure on the wider catchment, making it more viable for other farmers to continue operating within their nitrogen allocations. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is also about supporting a sustainable rural community,\u201d McTavish said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBy reducing nitrogen loss from this property, we\u2019re helping other farmers stay within their limits without further regulation. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a practical way to make progress toward our water quality goals while recognising the realities of farming in the catchment.\u201d <\/p>\n
The land has been purchased, but no decisions have been made about its future use. <\/p>\n
The council said it would consider options in early 2026, in line with central government regulations and guidelines. <\/p>\n
\u201cAny future land use will need to deliver environmental benefits, be financially sustainable and align with community values,\u201d McTavish said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe primary goal remains improving water quality in Lake Rotorua.\u201d<\/p>\n
Funding for the acquisition came from several sources, including $2 million from the Lake Rotorua Incentives Scheme, jointly funded by the Ministry for the Environment and Bay of Plenty Regional Council, $1.35 million from the regional council\u2019s existing capital works budget for the Rotorua Catchment, and $4.2 million to be financed through new debt, with interest funded by general rates. <\/p>\n
Additional operational and capital costs would be assessed once a land use decision is made and confirmed through the regional council\u2019s 2026\/2027 Annual Plan process. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This purchase was made under the newly adopted Lake Rotorua Catchment Land Acquisition Strategy, which enabled the regional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61026,4886,3245,5205,7558,7224,3233,14934,71,55317,15221,13207,36661,111,43,139,69,1562,13673,61027,4993,5914,1327,61,376,1533],"class_list":["post-78787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-76m","tag-aims","tag-convert","tag-council","tag-councils","tag-dairy","tag-farm","tag-farming","tag-from","tag-hectare","tag-improve","tag-lake","tag-nearby","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-plenty","tag-purchase","tag-purchased","tag-quality","tag-regional","tag-rotorua","tag-to","tag-water","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}