Protected coastal areas

Currently, the varying degrees of protection that can be awarded to coastal areas are defined as below:

Marine Reserve: an area completely protected from all extractive activities, usually through ‘no take’ laws and prohibition of removal or disturbance of living or non living features. The Department of Conservation is responsible for marine reserves. 

Marine mammal sanctuary: an area which protects and conserves marine mammals. In the West Coast North Island sanctuary there are restrictions on seismic surveying and mining. The Department of Conservation is responsible for marine reserves. 

Marine Park: an area within which particular activities are restricted. Pparticular areas within the park may have different levels of protection. 

The Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act 2000 sets out objectives designed to protect in perpetuity the natural and historic features of the Gulf. If restrictions are needed to achieve those objectives then acts such as the Resource Management Act, Marine Reserves Act 1971 or the Fisheries Act 1996 may be used. 

The Hauraki Gulf Forum was established as a result of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act. The Forum members include representation from the Ministers of Conservation, Fisheries and Māori Development, elected representatives of Auckland Council, Waikato Regional Council, Thames-Coromandel, Hauraki, Waikato and Matamata-Piako District Councils, and representatives of the tangata whenua of the Hauraki Gulf and its islands. The Forum meets four times a year and every three years produces an assessment of the state of the Hauraki Gulf and the responsiveness of agencies to strategic issues.

ASCV: Area of Significant Conservation Value. The boundary of an ASCV are Mean High Water Springs (MHWS) within the estuary or harbour and extend to the edge of the estuary or beyond as shown on the maps in Appendix III of the Waikato Regional Coastal Plan. ASCV classification does not exclude appropriate development but it must be balanced with adequate recognition of the values within that area. Waikato Regional Council is responsible for ASCVs. 

Taiapure: estuarine or coastal areas that are significant for food, spiritual, or cultural reasons. They allow all types of fishing and are managed by local communities.

Rohe moana: an area where Kaitiaki are appointed for the management of customary food gathering within that area.

Mataitai: an area that recognises and provide for traditional fishing through local management. Mataitai reserves allow customary and recreational fishing but usually don't allow commercial fishing.

Submarine cable and pipeline protection zone: areas where no fishing or anchoring is allowed to protect submarine cables or pipelines.

Some or all of the above is expected to change: as the Marine Protected Areas policy and plan is put into effect, decisions are made whether existing reserves and parks provide the level of protection necessary to award them the title of MPA, and new MPAs are created to fill gaps in the network.

Data on the spatial extent of submarine cable and pipeline protection zones, Taiapure, Rohe moana and Matiatai are provided by the Ministry of Primary Industries.

Data on the spatial extent of Te Whanganui-A-Hei Marine Reserve, the West Coast Marine Mammal Sanctuary and Hauraki Gulf Marine Park are provided by the Department of Consevation.

The Waikato Regional Coastal Plan provides details of the location and extent of ASCVs.

This indicator covers the entire marine area under Waikato Regional Council's jurisdiction which extends from the coastline to the twelve mile nautical limit.

To compile the indicator, we measure the extent of the Waikato region’s coastal marine area that is legally protected or subject to customary activities. Restricted areas containing marine infrastructure such as submarine pipelines and cables are also included in this indicator.

This indicator will be updated every five years, the next one is scheduled for 2025.

The indicator has been developed using a data snapshot from April 2020, which can be compared to previous and subsequent indicator updates.

Information relating to the extent of marine protection is derived from spatial databases maintained by both Waikato Regional Council and external agencies such as the Ministry of Primary Industries and the Department of Conservation.

The extent of the marine environment within Waikato Regional Council's jurisdiction is based upon Statistics New Zealand’s Coastal Marine Area (CMA) boundary. 

This GIS technique derives area statistics which can be analysed and presented using standard Microsoft desktop tools.

Developing this indicator requires two data creation and analysis steps detailed in the following text:

1. A GIS layer representing the coastal marine area of the Waikato region is created by initially selecting the area outside the territorial authorities from Statistics New Zealand meshblock data. The resulting marine area includes estuaries and harbours, and extends from the coast to the 12 mile nautical limit.
2. The following GIS layers were collected in April 2020:
   • Marine Reserves
   • Marine Parks
   • Marine mammal sanctuaries
   • ASCVs
   • Taiapure
   • Rohe Moana
   • Mataitai 
   • Submarine cable and pipeline protection zones

This data is derived from spatial databases maintained by both Waikato Regional Council and external agencies such as the Ministry for Primary Industries and the Department of Conservation.

Each layer is subtracted from the marine extent layer and area statistics calculated using GIS techniques. These are exported to Microsoft Excel for final presentation.

None relevant to this indicator.

Databases used within this indicator are subject to rigorous quality assurance procedures imposed by Statistics NZ, Waikato Regional Council, the Department of Conservation and the Ministry for Primary Industries.

As central government agencies assess current marine reserves, parks etc and decide whether to assign them the status of an MPA, this indicator’s results will change. It is possible that new MPAs will be created in the Waikato in the future.

Although ASCVs afford some protection, development is still allowed within their boundaries.

Some areas of different types of coastal protection overlap. For example, Aotea harbour is an ASCV, part of the West Coast North Island Marine Mammal Sanctuary, and a mataitai reserve, taiapure and rohe moana.

There have been small changes to the Waikato region boudary since the previous update of this indicator in 2015, with a consequent small change to the Waikato region coastal marine area, and in some protected coastal areas related to this boudary change. 

Figure 1 depicts the areas of different coastal protection in the Waikato Region.

Table 1 shows the amount (ha) of the coastal marine area (CMA; the area between Mean High Water Springs and 12 nautical miles offshore) awarded some degree of protection, with results presented separately for the west coast and the east coast (i.e. the Coromandel Peninsula and Firth of Thames).

• Figure 1 and Table 1 show that very little (less than 1%) of the Waikato region CMA is awarded the protection of a marine reserve. However, many of the region’s harbours and estuaries have some protection as ASCVs. Approximately 16,000 ha along the west coast and 34,000 ha  along the east coast are afforded this protection (totalling c. 5% of the coastal marine area). 
• The entire CMA of the east coast is part of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.
• The entire CMA of the west coast is part of a marine mammal sanctuary known as the West Coast North Island marine mammal sanctuary. 
• Taiapure, rohe moana and mataitai (see Methods for definitions) occupy large areas of the CMA (c. 16,000, 500,000 and 11,000 ha respectively), but are mostly limited to the west coast of the region.

Figure 1: Protected coastal areas in the Waikato Region

Table 1: Protected coastal areas (in hectares) on the west coast and east coasts of the Waikato region