Freshwater and Marine at DOC Lian Butcher Director

Freshwater and Marine at DOC Lian Butcher Director Aquatic 1

Overarching drivers for our freshwater work • National-scale freshwater reforms • Minister of Conservation has priority to improve freshwater habitats and to ensure conservation values are appropriately considered in policy development • DOC has been given a contingency budget for biodiversity giving possibility to scale up our freshwater capability • DOC has stretch goals of restoring 50 freshwater ecosystems from mountains to the sea, and enhancing the populations of 90% of our threatened species. 2 • At Risk catchments

What this means for DOC? • Clear on our freshwater role at DOC • Clear on our priority outcomes • Focus on partnerships 3

Enhancing biodiversity by protecting and restoring freshwater ecosystems • Protection and sustainable management of freshwater ecosystems • Managing invasive species and pests • Freshwater habitat restoration • Threatened species management • Management of freshwater species for harvest • Partnership with iwi 4

DOC’s freshwater toolkit • • National policy and legislation Managing public conservation land Partnerships Operations – our boots on the ground • Conservation advocacy • Statutory advocacy • Science and technical expertise and Mātauranga Māori 5

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Freshwater partnerships • At Risk Catchments • Other catchment/site based work • Biodiversity science input and operations • RMA Cycle • Monitoring/big data opportunities • Conservation advocacy 7

Marine work • Forming a marine strategy • Bycatch work to ramp up – Anipodean Albatross, Hoiho, Sealions, Maui/Hectors, Seabirds • Marine protected areas • Science proposal being developed for marine mammal protection 8

Marine opportunities • Marine habitat classification and mapping • Marine monitoring 9

Thank you 10