New data obtained by the Environmental Law Initiative (ELI) shows 146 marine mammals, including numerous Hector’s dolphins, Dusky dolphins, and seals, have been killed inside Aotearoa New Zealand’s marine mammal sanctuaries over the past two fishing years.

We submit

The proposed changes would substantially expand ministerial and executive discretion, weaken precautionary and ecosystem‑based protections, and reduce opportunities for public scrutiny and legal challenge.

We submit that DOC should consider the possibility of moving safe zones for marine mammals and spell out how it will achieve improved enforcement within Te Pēwhairangi Marine Mammal Sanctuary.

We’re calling for urgent action to stop mammal deaths in marine mammal sanctuaries.

Three days of hearing in the Wellington High Court in Lawyers for Climate Action and Environmental Law Initiative v Minister of Climate Change, concluded this afternoon.

The Minister was required by law to have a high level of confidence that New Zealand’s carbon budget would be met. However, the advice from his officials showed the chances of achieving the second emissions budget were not much better than a ‘coin toss’.

A landmark High Court hearing opens today as the Environmental Law Initiative (ELI) and Lawyers for Climate Action NZ challenge Climate Change Minister Simon Watts over decisions they say breach the law and endanger Aotearoa New Zealand’s climate goals.

Abolishing the Ministry poses significant risks for the protection of the environment.

The Bills remove established environmental limits, enable more pollution by opening new rights not previously legally available to polluters, limit public standing to participate, as well as judicial review rights, hollow out existing accountability mechanisms, and establish potential conflicts with the Wildlife Act 1953.

We have filed an appeal against a key part of the recent High Court judgment concerning Environment Canterbury’s (ECan) rule allowing nitrate pollution.

ELI’s appeal focuses specifically on the Court’s interpretation of section 83 of the Resource Management Act, which the Court found prevented ELI’s judicial review challenge.

Although ELI was not successful on the specific grounds of the judicial review, the judgment delivers powerful clarity about the Minister’s legal duties to protect hoiho.

The High Court has found that Environment Canterbury (ECan) made an error of law when it allowed nitrate discharges from farming as a region-wide permitted activity in its regional plan.  

The Environmental Law Initiative (ELI) welcomes today’s announcement of a significant closure of the Northland spiny rock lobster (kōura) fishery, a long‑overdue response to the ecological crisis unfolding across northeast Northland. 

Submission on the establishment of Puketeraki mātaitai reserve in East Otago.

ELI says Fisheries New Zealand needs to act quickly to improve its long-term options for protecting hoiho, as the urgent hearing on emergency measures wrapped up today in the Wellington High Court.

ELI is in the High Court this week for an urgent hearing challenging the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries’ emergency set-net fishing closure, which ELI argues is inadequate to protect the critically endangered northern hoiho (yellow-eyed penguin). 

We’re calling on the government to take immediate action to prevent fishing-related deaths of critically endangered West Pacific leatherback turtle in New Zealand waters. 

Appeal challenges legal interpretation of HSNO and EPA’s approach to glyphosate risk assessment.