Bay of Plenty Bay of Plenty Regional Council, which used the brand name Environment Bay of Plenty for a number of years, is the administrative body responsible for overseeing regional land use, environmental management and civil defence in the region. It also oversees local-tier governing councils for each of the territorial authorities. In 1989, Whakatane was selected as the seat for the regional council, as a compromise between the two dominant cities of Tauranga and Rotorua. Public health in New Zealand is broken into regions. The Bay of Plenty and Lakes district health boards have public health provided by Toi Te Ora -
Bay of Plenty in the region struggled: the climate was ill-suited to sheep farming and the geography was inaccessible, further hindered by a lack of infrastructure. By the end of the century the population had started to dwindle. But after experimenting with different crops, settlers found success with dairy production. Dairy factories sprang up across the Bay of Plenty in the 1900s, with butter and cheese feeding economic prosperity throughout the early 20th century; local Māori continued to live on the fringe of this prosperity. Timber also became a major export in the 1950s, as kiwifruit did later. The present Bay of Plenty