Environment · Party position

TOP on Environment

Set firm environmental limits and invest in nature-positive economy

TOP says too many rivers are unswimmable and unique wildlife is at risk. They want stronger rules on water quality, more money for conservation, and help for landowners to farm in gentler ways. They also want to tackle plastic waste and restore ocean health, and create new business opportunities that reward people for improving nature.

What they say they'll do

Increase conservation and biosecurity funding, focusing on wetlands, native reforestation and biodiversity-rich projects
Improve water quality through strong regulation and independent oversight
Phase out bottom trawling and shift to ecosystem-based fisheries management
Protect 30% of New Zealand's ocean territory as marine reserve by 2035
Support landowners to transition to high-value, low-impact land uses that reduce pesticide and artificial fertiliser use
Design a circular plastics economy aligned to the New Plastics Economy Roadmap

Who this affects

Farmers and rural landowners

The party says it will support landowners to shift to lower-impact land uses through spatial planning and technology that reduces pesticide and fertiliser use, and will invest in a nature market that rewards actions that improve biodiversity.

Commercial and recreational fishers

The party says its reforms will phase out bottom trawling, raise sustainability baselines, and install cameras on commercial boats, which it says will restore fish stocks over time and improve catch rates for recreational fishers.

Coastal communities

The party says its Healthy Oceans policy will create jobs in coastal restoration, sustainable aquaculture, seafood processing, marine research, and ocean tourism, with transition support for workers affected by changes to bottom trawling.

In their own words

“When half of our rivers are unswimmable and our unique biodiversity is at risk — it's time to set bottom-lines, as well as invest in the nature-positive economy of the future.”

“New Zealand looks after the fifth-biggest ocean territory on earth, 15 times our land mass. Half a percent of it is protected.”

“Native forest, wetlands and living soil hold this country together. Let's fund them like the infrastructure they are.”

Verify at The Opportunities Party — official policy page

Summarised neutrally from The Opportunities Party’s own official policy (as at 2026-09-07) and checked by an editor. Nothing is paraphrased without the source linked. Read the original ↗ Arapono is non-partisan. Compare all parties on Environment →

In depth — from TOP’s policy document · February 2026

Healthy Oceans: fisheries reform, marine protection and a blue economy

TOP would move fisheries away from the Quota Management System’s single-species quotas toward ecosystem-based management, lift the biomass level at which a stock counts as sustainable, put cameras on every commercial vessel over 8 metres, and phase out bottom trawling in stages. Marine protection would expand from under 0.5 percent of the EEZ to 30 percent by 2035, using a new statute to replace the Marine Reserves Act 1971. Seabed mining would be banned permanently. The party puts the short-term cost at no more than $100 million a year.

Our ocean territory

Over 4m km²

Protected today

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TOP on Environment

What they say they'll do

Who this affects

In their own words

Healthy Oceans: fisheries reform, marine protection and a blue economy

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