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OIAD-1002
9 April 2024

A McDonald
[FYI request #26039 email]

Tēnā koe,
Thank you for your email of 6 March 2024 to the Ministry for the Environment (the Ministry),
requesting the following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
“A breakdown (including forecast) JFN funding contracted but unused from 1 July
2024, by the end of the current four-year programme, showing:
-  Total dollar value of unused funding
-  Names of each contracted party with unused funding, dollar value of unused
funding for each contracted party
-  If the funding is planned to be extended beyond 30 June 2024, the parties that
the funding wil  be extended for (incl. under consideration), and the dollar value
under consideration for extension or extended.”

Jobs for Nature is a cross-government  programme  established  to  create  nature-based
employment in response to the economic impacts of COVID-19. The Ministry is responsible
for $444.5 mil ion1 to create jobs in regional environmental projects that are improving New
Zealand’s freshwater and to improve freshwater and ecology through a number of dif erent
interventions.
Many of the projects funded by the Ministry under the Jobs for Nature Programme are either
5 or 6-year programmes; meaning that the majority of projects funded by the Ministry under
the  Jobs  for  Nature  Programme  are  not  expected  to  close  until  2025/2026.  Of the 172
contracts the Ministry administers under the Jobs for Nature programme, only 6 have already
closed and 20 are expected to close by 30 June 2024.

1 As the lead agency, the Ministry has been al ocated operational funding for the establishment and administration
of the programme, including the Jobs for Nature Secretariat (who oversee and coordinate the Jobs for Nature
partnering agencies).

Remaining contracted payments beyond 30 June 2024
The Ministry is unable to provide you with estimates of unused funding beyond 30 June 2024
as these projects are stil  being delivered and there is no ‘unused’ funding. On this basis I am
refusing this element of your request under section 18(e) as the information sought does not
exist or cannot be found.
However, in the spirit of the Act, I am providing you with details of the Ministry’s Jobs for Nature
projects that are contracted beyond 30 June 2024. (At achment 1 refers). Please note that,
given the frequency of Jobs for Nature reporting, these figures are current as at 31 December
2023 and are best estimates.
The Ministry does not classify these funds as ‘unused’ given that these projects wil  stil  be
ongoing and in delivery as at 1 July 2024; instead, these values reflect:
•  funding that has already been contracted to project partners by the Ministry under the
Jobs for Nature Programme and
•  is expected to be paid beyond 30 June 2024.
The Ministry is unable to provide a forecast of the value of funds that may, upon completion
of a particular project or fund, be unused while these projects are stil  in delivery. We note that
these projects are all expected to spend their contracted amount in full as per their respective
Deed of Funding. The Ministry would not be able to provide details of unused funding, forecast
or actual, until after a project has ended and the final reporting has been settled.

Project partners with term extensions
You have also requested details of funding planned to be extended beyond 30 June 2024,
including extensions stil  under consideration.
As noted above, the majority of the projects funded by the Ministry under the Jobs for Nature
programme wil  stil  be ongoing and in delivery from 1 July 2024. Attachment 1 includes and
identifies projects that have end dates beyond 30 June 2024. The total contracted dollar value
of remaining payments to these projects is also provided.
I am refusing the part of your request to identify parties with extensions under consideration
under section 9(2)(j) of the Of icial Information Act – to enable the Crown to negotiate without
disadvantage or prejudice.
In terms of section 9(1) of the Act, I am satisfied that, in the circumstances, the withholding of
this information is not outweighed by other considerations that render it desirable to make the
information available in the public interest.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Office of the Ombudsman of my
decision to withhold information relating to this request, in accordance with section 28(3) of
the  Act.  The  relevant  details  can  be  found  on  their  website  at:
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.

Please note that due to the public interest in our work the Ministry for the Environment
publishes responses to requests for official information on our OIA responses page shortly
after the response has been sent. If you have any queries about this, please feel free to
contact our Ministerial Services team: [email address].

Nāku noa, nā

Lorena Stephen,
General Manager, Partnerships and Investments
Ministry for the Environment | Manatū Mō Te Taiao

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