July 26, 1999
By Bas Walker, Chief Executive, ERMA New Zealand
A year ago today a vital piece of legislation was passed that drew a line in the sand for the New Zealand environment.
On July 29, 1998 the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act came into effect, placing strict controls on what sorts of plants and animals people can bring into New Zealand.
The aim of the new regime is to put a stop to the biological invasions that have overrun our landscape over the past 150 years. Many of these alien organisms are choking the life out of native species, creating a legacy that costs hundreds of millions of dollars every year in pest and weed control.
Rampant weeds like wild ginger and old man's beard are obvious examples. Without natural predators and competitors, these alien plants have thrived in the New Zealand environment. They continue to threaten some of our more unique and vulnerable native flora, shaped by 80 million years of isolation.
Since European settlement, more than 20,000 species have entered the country, of which an estimated 2,000 have escaped into natural habitats. Today there are as many introduced conifers and flowering plants in the wild as native species. We know that about 200 of these are harmful to native plants.
Landcare Research scientist William Lee recently estimated that the rate of entry of alien plant species is around one every two days – or 144 species per year. He points out that already one tenth of the world's flowering plants are growing here, on a land area made up of less that 0.2 percent of the world's total.
We know that almost three-quarters of new plant species arrive as air baggage from such countries as Australia, South-East Asia and Europe. Most of the importers wanting new species are private collectors and commercial nurseries, interested in beautiful or unusual plants for their gardens.
Nine out of ten of these plants are harmless, but past experience tells us that a few will threaten native species – and in some cases, our commercial species. New Zealand's economic prosperity is built on agricultural and horticultural production, so significant issues are at stake.
To help screen exactly what is coming into the country, the government passed the HSNO law, which covers the introduction of any new species of plant or animal.
So if you want to import a new plant or animal you now need approval from the Environmental Risk Management Authority, known as ERMA New Zealand.
The Authority is an independent agency set up by the Government to make decisions on what organisms can come in – and what stays out. It has recently been in the headlines over the separate issue of organisms of the "genetically modified" kind, but we also deal with non-GMO plants and animals.
New Zealand now has a comprehensive regime in place to assess the impact of all ‘new organisms' before they are introduced. The role of the Authority is to decide if they represent a threat to the environment, or to public health and safety. The emphasis is on assessing the risks of introduction – and then weighing up the costs and benefits to the environment, the economy and society.
Under the HSNO Act, a ‘new organism' is a new species coming into New Zealand for the first time, such as an exotic zoo animal or a new type of fruit. The Act also prohibits a number of plants, including Moreton Bay chestnut, all species of cynanchum and all mistletoes.
Under the HSNO law, an organism is only ‘new' if it wasn't present in the country before the law came into force on 29 July last year. Importers of new plant species – tree crops, fruit or vegetable varieties, herbs, flowers – are affected by the new regime and need formal approval. Unfortunately, some seed and bulb importers still don't seem to realise the need to talk to ERMA New Zealand before they bring things in.
Concerns have been raised with us over the past year that applications under HSNO take time and money. For some, the cost of obtaining an approval (or a declaration that the organism is not a new one) could exceed the value of the plant to be imported. But past experience shows us that if we fail to manage new organisms effectively, the whole country will face far greater costs in the long term.
ERMA New Zealand is taking a pragmatic and common sense approach to the problem. For example, some plant societies have been quick to explore a legal facility that determines if a species is not a ‘new' organism. We currently don't charge a fee for this service, but we do expect to be given enough information to make a decision.
For example, we worked closely with the Narcissus Society to determine that some 40 species of daffodils and a number of crosses were not ‘new' organisms under the Act. The Society prepared a list of known daffodil species in New Zealand and their characteristics. The Authority reviewed these and established that all these species were already present in the country. As a result, not only these species, but also all varieties derived from crosses from them, can be imported without needing a HSNO approval.
We are aware that the Orchid Council wants a similar determination. But orchids are a very large and diverse group of plants that have been hybridised in many, often ill-recorded ways. Because some orhids exhibit weedy or invasive characteristics, that process won't be as straightforward.
The Authority is doing everything it can to avoid bureaucratic hold-ups with the application process. Our aim is to assess the risks and to focus only on those things that have potentially significant effects. For many importers, there will be minimal risks to consider and the application process will be quite simple.
Importers of plants and animals will also need to meet the requirements of existing legislation, such as the Biosecurity and Resource Management Acts.
However, for those proposals that pose a potential threat to the environment, there is now a public process to go through and this will mean providing information and talking it through. It is in the interest of all of us to effectively evaluate new species before we let them go into the New Zealand environment.