Banks Peninsula plan “a masterpiece”

Environment Canterbury councillors have sung the praises of a collaborative plan designed to protect and improve Whakaraupō/Lyttelton Harbour.

Whaka-Ora Healthy Harbour, was created by Environment Canterbury, Lyttelton Port Company, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, Christchurch City Council and Ngāti Wheke in consultation with the harbour communities.

Under the Lyttelton Port Recovery Plan 2015, the five partners made a commitment to work together to protect and restore the ecological and cultural health of the harbour.  This involved the development of a visionary plan outlining the desired future of the harbour and what work needs to be done to get there.

Presenting the final plan

The final plan, Whaka-Ora Healthy Harbour, was presented to the Environment Canterbury council.

Cr Peter Skelton praised the way the partners had worked together on the plan.

"It was, and still is, a very important part going forward of the work that needs to be done, not only in developing the Port of Lyttelton but for ensuring in the process cultural and natural and environmental values are also catered for and indeed improved," he said.

"The document itself I believe is a masterpiece and I think will provide a model going forward particularly for non-statutory management plans incorporating all the cultural values as it does."

Cr Cynthia Roberts agreed.

"As an ecologist and someone who is passionate about biodiversity, I do think this is the most visionary document I have read in many, many years.  Whenever I read it, it was inspiring and I would love it to be a model elsewhere.  I just think the language is beautiful.  I really look forward to that future state this vision created."

Acknowledging hard work 

Environment Canterbury's representative on the governance group Cr Elizabeth Cunningham acknowledged the hard work done by staff behind the scenes to get the plan ready for publication.

"It was a huge amount of work by all the partners. It's a wonderful document."

To find out more about the plan visit healthyharbour.org.nz.