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Natural Environment Bill

Foundations - Environmental limits - How environmental limits must be set

57: Assessing existing capacity of natural environment

You could also call this:

"Checking how well the natural environment can handle problems"

Illustration for Natural Environment Bill

When you assess the natural environment, you need to think about how well it can cope with pressure and disturbances. You have to look at the state of the environment at the start of this new law. You also have to consider the history of environmental limits and how well they protected the environment. You must think about the current state of the natural environment, including ecosystems and how they are changing over time. You have to consider what is causing these changes, whether it is natural or human activities. You need to predict how the environment might change in the future, both in the short and long term. You have to consider how well the environment can bounce back from pressures like climate change or severe weather. You also have to think about important species, habitats, and ecosystems, especially those that are rare or endangered. You have to consider all these things to understand the existing capacity of the natural environment.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1524067.

This page was last updated on 14 December 2025 — View changes

Topics:

Environment and resources > ConservationEnvironment and resources > Climate and energy

56: Assessing impact of proposed environmental limit or methodology, or

"Checking how new environmental rules will affect people and the environment"

58: National standards must set management units or methodologies, or

"National standards must set rules for managing the environment"

Part 2Foundations
Environmental limits: How environmental limits must be set

57Assessing existing capacity of natural environment

A consideration of the existing capacity of the natural environment to withstand or recover from pressure and disturbances requires an assessment of—
the state of the relevant attribute as at the date of the commencement of this section:
the history of any previous relevant environmental limits and the level of protection they provided:
the existing state of the natural environment (including ecosystems and their constituent parts), any trends showing a change in the state of the environment over time, and the natural and human causes of those states and trends:
any prediction of the likely future change in the natural environment that may reasonably occur—
1. over the medium and long term; and
2. from natural and human causes:
the resilience of the natural environment to—
1. pressures and disturbances (for example from the use of natural resources, climate change, severe weather, floods, droughts, or other perturbations); and
2. any potential for regime shifts or irreversible degradation:
important species, habitats, and ecosystems, especially those that are rare, threatened, or endangered.