DECLARATION OF RESPONSIBLE MINISTER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE

New Zealand’s fisheries are a valuable natural resource. But it is a limited resource and must be carefully managed if it is to provide present and future generations with the best possible value.

This Statement of Intent looks out over the next four years and sets out the Ministry of Fisheries’ core role and how it will work with a wide range of parties who participate in government planning and decision-making in fisheries management. The Ministry has been working to deliver fisheries management systems and to promote new management frameworks to realise the direction set out in the 2003/08 Strategic Plan. Going forward, the Ministry recognises there are opportunities to improve existing frameworks.

Consistent with the Ministry’s Strategic Plan, this Statement of Intent (SOI) promotes an enhanced management approach for fisheries – one where the Ministry will develop, and progressively implement, stock strategies for most fish species. Stakeholders will have the opportunity to develop fisheries plans, either based on or independent of Ministry stock strategies.

The Ministry recognises resources are limited and it is not able to do all it wants. Changes need to be staged carefully in line with its capacity to deliver.

A Fisheries Intervention Plan will be the vehicle for prioritising the fisheries management services to be delivered by the Ministry in future years. This will include the services necessary to meet fisheries management standards, the objectives of the stock strategies and the evaluation and monitoring of fisheries plans.

The transition to this new approach will take place over the next few years.

Hon David Benson-Pope
Minister of Fisheries



Warwick Tuck
Chief Executive