Farm Environment Plans

A Farm Environment Plan (FEP) is your tool to help you identify the environmental risks on your farm and make plans to manage and mitigate those risks. Your plan will be unique to your farm and consider the type of farming, operational practices and local environment.

Freshwater Farm Plans

You may have heard some talk about Freshwater Farm Plans, a concept introduced in the Government’s Essential Freshwater package.

Freshwater Farm Plans are likely some years away from being rolled out in Canterbury, so farmers aren't being asked to look into them yet.

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:

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.

Getting your FEP audited

Auditor talkin to farmer with farm in backgroundAn FEP audit is an independent assessment of how you are following your FEP, carried out by an approved auditor.

The date of your first audit will be determined by your resource consent or water supplier’s consent. Subsequent audit dates will depend on your audit grade, with higher grades meaning less frequent audits.

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

If you have received any advice or input from an auditor in any component of the preparation of an FEP or audit, including nutrient budgets, then the same auditor cannot audit that farm.

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, or irrigation scheme. You will also receive a copy of the FEP Audit Report with any required actions detailed for your reference.

Use our 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.

Resources

FEP compliance

View the Farmers Guide to Environment Canterbury Rules (PDF File, 3.71MB). Please note, that for some activities, sub-regional rules apply.

Each financial year, we report on the grades for each audit. Take a look at how many audits achieve a pass grade.

FEP templates

You can use our Farm Environment Plan Template (XLSM File, 1.41MB) to help with creating your FEP.

FEP auditors

The following are our currently approved Farm Environment Plan auditors.

Contact Company Phone Email

Alison Van Polanen

EnviroPlan Limited   021 946 419   alison@enviroplan.nz 

Arron Hutton

Ravensdown Ltd  021 900 242  arron.hutton@ravensdown.co.nz

Amelia Wood

Element Environmental  027 821 9946  Amelia@element.org.nz

Belinda Meares

Irricon Resource Solutions  021 242 0023  belinda@irricon.co.nz

Charlotte Senior

 Agri Intel  027 310 1438  charlotte@agriintel.co.nz

Dave Lucock

The Agribusiness Group  027 258 0771   dave@agribusinessgroup.com

David Ashby

Dave Ashby Rural Consultants Ltd  027 450 2934  dave@darcl.nz

David Hewson

Hewson Rural Consulting Ltd  021 241 3549  david.hewson.consulting@outlook.com

Emma Brand

Brand Consulting Ltd

 027 699 4696

 emma@brandconsulting.co.nz

Erin Harvie

Bowden Environmental  027 434 7438  erin@bowden.co.nz

Hannah Foster

Ravensdown Ltd  021 405 671  hannah.foster@ravensdown.co.nz

John Holmes

Rural Consulting Ltd  027 774 7772  john@ruralconsulting.co.nz

Julie Lambie

Agri Intel  027 378 1971  julie@agriintel.co.nz

Leah Gorman

EnviroPlan Limited  027 737 5697  leah@enviroplan.nz

Michael Edmondson

Agri Environmental Limited  021 503 397  michael.edmondson@outlook.com

Nicky Watt

Irricon Resource Solutions  021 220 1136  nicky@irricon.co.nz

Nicole Phillips

Irricon Resource Solutions  027 414 0456  nicole@irricon.co.nz

Paul Reese

Matai Consultants Limited  027 731 4433 paul@matai.nz

Sophie McClenaghan

Ravensdown  021 240 4241 sophie.mcclenaghan@ravensdown.co.nz

Steph Wright

The AgriBusiness Group  027 869 6407 steph@agribusinessgroup.com

Sue Cumberworth

   027 628 6110  sue.cumberworth@gmail.com