NZFAP+ is the red-meat sector’s voluntary sustainability standard. Strip away the acronyms and it comes down to one thing: a Farm Environment Plan, externally audited, built on a couple of good maps. Here’s what it is, what the tiers mean, and the bits that land on a map.

NZFAP vs NZFAP+

  • NZFAP is the foundation — origin, traceability, food safety and animal welfare, for sheep, beef and deer (and wool). Single-level, pass/fail.
  • NZFAP+ sits on top: a voluntary overlay adding People, Environment and Biosecurity, delivered through an externally-audited Farm Environment Plan (FEP). You have to be NZFAP-certified first.

It’s owned by NZFAI and audited by QCONZ on a three-yearly cycle. Dairy isn’t in scope — that’s Fonterra/DairyNZ territory.

Silver and Gold

NZFAP+ is tiered:

  • Silver — getting on the journey: identify your key resources and put the foundational steps of your Environment Plan in place.
  • Gold — implementing the plan, monitoring it, and the more aspirational, future-facing requirements.

Unmet Gold requirements come back as recommendations, not corrective actions.

The Farm Environment Plan

Every NZFAP+ farm holds an FEP covering: a farm map, a physical/infrastructure map, a land & freshwater management plan, nutrient and greenhouse-gas budgets, a biodiversity plan, and how crops and winter grazing are managed.

The two maps it really wants

This is where most of the work — and most of the audit — lives:

  • Farm & Infrastructure Map — the point-and-line stuff: fuel, chemical and fertiliser storage, offal and silage pits, sheds and yards, effluent and washdown, crossings, fences and riparian margins, leased land — and a Designated Safe Meeting Point (yes, even base NZFAP wants that on the map).
  • Natural Resources Map — soil, slope, aspect, elevation, land management units, waterways and monitoring points, waterbodies, vegetation, critical source areas and erosion-prone land. Land Use Capability is recommended where known.

Get those two right and you’ve built the spine of the plan — and most of a Freshwater Farm Plan along with it.

What an audit actually checks

  • A three-yearly independent audit (QCONZ).
  • Corrective actions are graded by severity: Critical — 7 days · Major — 30 days · Minor — 60 days.
  • Keep your records at least five years.

A note on versions

The current standards are NZFAP V8 and NZFAP+ V6, audited against from 1 October 2025. The full V6 text is request-gated, so if you see a clause number quoted anywhere — including here — treat it as indicative and confirm it against the current standard before relying on it. The section names are stable; the numbers shift year to year.

Bottom line: NZFAP+ isn’t really about paperwork. It’s a plan hung off two good maps and a handful of budgets. Get the maps right first, and the rest follows.