File photo. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
*This story has been updated to remove an inaccurate quote provided by Forest and Bird.
Forest & Bird is urging the government to pass a policy that would give councils more power to stop new development in high-risk areas.
The National Policy Statement for Natural Hazard Decision-making would require councils to evaluate the likelihood of a hazard such as floods, earthquakes, or landslips, when making planning decisions in a given area.
If the risk was deemed to be too high, new development could be stopped, while in areas of moderate risk, developers would need to undertake mitigation risk reduction works.
The NPS is designed to be an interim measure, while a more comprehensive National Direction for Natural Hazards is developed over the next one-to-two years.
Currently, councils are limited in what they can do.
In Auckland, 1400 new house consents have been granted in flood plains, since the devastating floods last year.
Consultation on the NPS closed in November, with the intention to implement it in early 2024.
Forest & Bird freshwater advocate Tom Kay said passing it was critical.
"We've had a huge discussion after these events about managed retreat, in Hawke's Bay and other places. But one of the first things we need to stop doing is putting communities in harm's way in these places we know are going to flood."
Kay said there was direction in the Resource Management Act to consider natural hazards, but it was not specific or direct enough to allow them to zone high-hazard areas.
"We're going end up tied up in knots and be talking about retreating from places we're developing now, when we clearly know these are not the places to be building our communities," he said.
Insurers were already opting not to insure properties in hazardous areas, which Kay said could sting councils further down the line.
Forest & Bird has written to Environment Minister Penny Simmonds, and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts urging them to pass the NPS.
Kay said it was early days, and while Watts had said he was looking forward to receiving officials' analysis of submissions on the NPS in the next few weeks, there was no commitment.
Turning high-risk areas into wetlands or greenspace was the norm overseas, and New Zealand was behind the game, Kay said.
"We have to stop bad decisions before we can fix the ones we've made in the past."