Environment Waikato has granted $10,000 from its Environmental Initiative Fund towards developing a Landscape Planning Guide to help district councils address landscape management issues.

The Environmental Defence Fund is developing a nationally accepted guide to increase the capacity of district councils, resource management professionals and other stakeholders to identify and effectively manage important landscapes. The aim is to produce a technically sound, peer reviewed, concise and user-friendly document.

The group says rural and coastal subdivision is having significant effect on important landscapes within the Waikato Region. The guide would be available to district councils to help them effectively manage the effects of these pressures.

District and city councils in the Region will be approached for participation in the project.