Farm Environment Plans

An FEP covers: 

• Risk identification: pinpoints areas on the farm vulnerable to nutrient loss (N, P, sediment) or erosion. 
• Management strategies: outlines specific actions for land, water, nutrient, and stock management. 
• Supporting plans: an FEP may include agrichemical, effluent, biodiversity, and irrigation plans. 
• Record keeping: document your current practices and future environmental goals.  

What should be in an FEP?

Your resource consent for land use, water use or effluent discharge describes what information should be in your FEP.

This will include general information about your farming operation, identification of the environmental risks and mitigations, identification of good management practices, and possibly some zone-specific requirements. These may include:

• irrigation management
• nutrient management
• effluent management
• point source management (e.g. offal, silage)
• cultivation and soil structure
• mahinga kai protection
• māori rock art protection (in South Canterbury).

If you have multiple consents that each require an FEP, then you should include all the requirements in one FEP. You do not need multiple FEPs.

Scheduling your audit

An FEP audit is an independent assessment of how you are following your FEP, carried out by an approved auditor.

Your first audit date will be determined by your resource consent or your water supplier (irrigation scheme). Subsequent dates will depend on your audit grade, with higher grades meaning less frequent audits.

We’ll send you a reminder when your audit date is coming up, but it’s your responsibility to contact an auditor and arrange the audit.

When you’ve booked your audit, please provide the booking date and auditor name to fep.audit@ecan.govt.nz.

Note: if you have received any advice or input from an auditor during the preparation of an FEP, audit or nutrient budget, then the same auditor cannot audit that farm.

FEP audit visit

The auditor will visit your farm to verify your farming practices, check your records and paperwork, and either submit a FEP Audit report to us, or if appropriate, your water supplier/irrigation scheme. You will receive a copy of the FEP Audit Report with any required actions detailed for your reference. 

If you have an FEP condition on your resource consent, or a resource consent held by an irrigation scheme on your behalf, that condition will require you to achieve an FEP audit grade of A or B. Having an A or B grade means you are compliant with this specific condition, but not necessarily with your resource consent. Use our consent search to check the full list of conditions for your consent. 

Download the Ready for Audit checklist (PDF File, 73.94KB) to make sure you have the evidence available to show your auditor.

Our approved FEP auditors follow the Canterbury Certified FEP Auditor Manual (PDF File, 2.44MB), as well as the FEP auditor guidance documents. These standards have been developed by Environment Canterbury with input from industry and FEP Auditors.

Freshwater farm plans and FEPs

Freshwater farm plans (FWFP) were introduced as part of the Essential Freshwater Package, but FWFP have not yet been rolled out in Canterbury.

Changes to the FWFP process in 2025 as part of the wider resource management act reform. However, because the FWFP process has not yet been implemented in Canterbury, you are still required to undertake an FEP audit as a condition of your resource consent.

Freshwater Farm Plans will build on the work undertaken by farmers in their FEP process or industry programmes.

Find out more about FWFP at the Ministry for the Environment website.

Resource management reform and FEP audits

New legislation, introduced by the Government in December 2025, has automatically extended many consents. This is to allow for a smoother transition to the new resource management system.

The extension of consents includes the extension of the consent conditions, including FEP audits. More information on the automatic extensions.

Approved FEP auditors