14. Use of the Rural Environment Volume One have been left to revert to indigenous forest and bush cover. In amongst areas of indigenous vegetation, farming and forestry, residential development has occurred, reflecting peoples’ desire to live and holiday in the Marlborough Sounds. A narrow strip of rural land within the coastal environment exists along the south Marlborough coast. The values and nature of this environment and the activities undertaken here are markedly different to those in the Marlborough Sounds. There is less indigenous vegetation present, less land in public ownership, less residential development (except for an area around Rarangi) and the activities undertaken are essentially the same as those found the Awatere and Ward areas. Issue 14A – Safeguarding the potential of Marlborough’s rural resources for primary production. The varied nature of Marlborough’s physical environment has led to a wide range of land uses, including primary production activities such as agriculture, viticulture, horticulture and forestry, and non-primary production activities such as residential, commercial and industrial development. Marlborough’s towns, roads and other infrastructure are also important occupiers of the land resource. It is important to recognise that as a community, we have a reliance on the use and development of rural resources for social, cultural and economic wellbeing. Chapter 4 - Use of Natural and Physical Resources recognises the significance of this and establishes a high level framework for the provisions that follow in this chapter. Notably, Chapter 4 sets up a framework that: • recognises the rights of resource users by only intervening in the use of land to protect the environment and wider public interests in the environment; • enables sustainable use of natural resources in the Marlborough environment; and • maintains and enhances the quality of natural resources. Given this, the first issue identified in Chapter 14 concerns the ability of primary production activities to be able to operate and continue to contribute to the wider economic wellbeing of Marlborough. Within this however, it is important to acknowledge that activities in rural environments do have the potential to affect the quality of rural resources and can also affect interactions between different parts of the community. These types of issues can create tensions within the community. The viability and versatility of the rural resource for primary production activities can be adversely affected by non-rural activities, land fragmentation and the proximity of sensitive receiving environments, such as those found in adjacent towns. Land use, subdivision and development activities in rural environments can have adverse effects on a range of matters including indigenous biodiversity, landscape values, water quality and availability, soil quality, natural hazards and transportation. Other chapters of the Marlborough Environment Plan (MEP) assist in responding to effects on these matters and given the integrated nature of this document, it is important these other chapters are considered to help inform the management framework for the use of Marlborough’s rural environment. This includes rural environments within the coastal environment. [RPS, D] Objective 14.1 – Rural environments are maintained as a resource for primary production activities, enabling these activities to continue contributing to economic wellbeing whilst ensuring the adverse effects of these activities are appropriately managed. Marlborough benefits from rural environments that have a range of attributes necessary for primary productive rural activities, including a variety of soils, water resources and landscapes that are able to sustain a diverse range of economic activities. A productive rural environment is important to the economic health of the District and this environment needs to be recognised as a productive resource. Primary production activities use rural resources for economic gain and 14 – 2