Problem overview:
Awareness and visions: New Zealand sees the environment in an integrated perspective with human activities that these 2 issues should always be considered together. That is why its policies and measures emphasize the management and protection of environment that will enable people to have a healthy and safety well-being.
Policies and measures: Most countries have a huge number of laws and regulations that relate, in one way or another, to environmental issues. The result has often been confusion, contradicting legislation, loopholes, and excessive costs of monitoring and enforcement. New Zealand has totally revamped its legislative base into a single and simple environmental law on how the people of New Zealand are going to use, develop or protect natural and physical resources.
Integrating Stakeholders: The Resource Management Act has been completely revised by the entire government structure starting from district level to regional authorities and has started a new attitude of involving local communities in decision making process.
Background in summary:
Purpose of the Resource Management Act: The Resource Management Act is a means of planning how the people of New Zealand are going to use, develop or protect natural and physical resources. These resources include rivers, lakes, coastal and geothermal areas; land, including soils; forests and farmlands; the air; the constructed environment buildings, bridges, and other structures in cities and towns.
Covering the issue of Sustainable Management: In the Act sustainable management means "managing the use, development, and protection of natural and physical resources in a way, or at a rate, which enables people and communities to provide for their social, economic and cultural well being and for their health and safety.
Participation of local communities in policy formulation: The Act also provides for the community to become involved in making decisions. It is in the process of formulating these plans and policies that members of the community have the opportunity to have their say about what they want to happen in their area. The Act encourages councils to seek the views of their residents and businesses when developing resource management plans.
Policy Statements and Plans: The Act gives most of the responsibility for managing resources and their use to local authorities.
- Resource Regional policy statement describes the policies and the methods that will be used to manage these resources. Each regional council must always have one policy statement.
- Resource Regional plan deals with specific resource management issues. Regional plans are not compulsory and there may be more than one.
- Resource Regional Coastal Plan is compulsory for the coastal marine area and may be included as part of the regional plan.
- Resource District Plan each territorial authority must have one district plan to help them carry out their functions. The plan must not be inconsistent with any national policy statement or the regional policy statement.
Resource Consents: A resource consent gives a person or organization permission to use or develop a natural or physical resource, and/or carry out an activity that affects the environment in some way for a stated period. Resource consents replace the many different permissions granted under previous law. The would have been called permits, licenses, rights consents, approvals, Order in Council, or authority.
See document in full
Good practice rating:
(1 for the best, 5 for the lowest score) |
|
Sustainability
|
Efficiency
|
| 2 |
 Improvement in either the environment of economic condition with no harm to the other. |
- |
Cost efficient. |
| 2 |
Sustainable over time (not one-off) |
Process |
| Adaptability |
1 |
Participation of the community |
| 2 |
Location adaptability (can the project be done in other places?) |
2 |
Participation of resource owners/users |
| 2 |
Socio-cultural adaptability. |
2 |
Partnerships between various actors (Governments, NGO, Academia, Private) |
| 2 |
Level of development adaptability. |
2 |
Degree of coordination and cooperation between government departments. |
| 2 |
Style of government adaptability. |
2 |
Ability to attract political interest/support |
| 3 |
Degree of decentralization adaptability. |
- |
Procedures for feedback and review. |
Comments on this example:
New Zealand's RMA is considered one of the best examples of environmental legislation in the world. Agenda 21 was modeled after it and New Zealanders played a significant role in setting up Agenda 21 prior to the UNCED congress in Rio.
New Zealand created the Resource Management Act because it was bankrupt and could no longer afford the costs of a centrally regulated administration. There seems to be little information on exactly how the founders of the RMA actually got the law enacted. It was, in effect, a coup of major proportions. It is not even clear exactly who the actual founders were.
|
Sustainability of the project:
|
Awareness and vision: The general attitude of the line ministries in New Zealand was traditionally anti-conservationist and dedicated command and control. In 1990, New Zealand was the most highly regulated country outside of the Soviet Union. Even after passage of the new law many departments found it difficult to revise their methods of control. One key official in the Ministry for the Environment said the Act resulted in, "total chaos."
Adaptability of the project to other situations:
It may not be easy to adopt this approach in most countries, as each agency like to have its own domain. Implementation of the act may also become difficult due to this reason. It is not clear from the example the role of the various agencies (environment & natural resources) has to play in implementing the act. It would be useful to know more details on these aspects, since the experiences gained since it was enacted in 1991.
Style of Government adaptability: Many, if not most, government departments in the Asia Pacific Region would object to the concept of reorganization and decentralization of power mandated by New Zealand's Resource Management Act. However, the increasing costs of regulating environmental issues and the general failure of governments to cope with rising populations, falling levels of employment, and drastic threats to natural resources, soils, and public health all combine to create a situation where governments may have little choice but to consider a total revision of their legal and administrative structure along the lines of New Zealand.
Fiji is in the process of trying to emulate the RMA with little success - not because of a fault in the concept, but because the Fiji law does not actually mirror the New Zealand legislation in its critical simplicity and drastic restructuring of government. One critical fault of the Fiji RMA is that it sets up a parallel decision making body that is outside the decision process of Cabinet. Cabinets are not keen to have more than one decision making national bodies and, not surprisingly, Fiji's cabinet has not officially reviewed the proposed law even though the proposed legislation has been ready for years. At present, the Fiji administration receives significant artificial life support from foreign aid, so it does not have to change.
|
Adaptability of the project to other situations:
|
New Zealand created the Resource Management Act because it was bankrupt and could no longer afford the costs of a centrally regulated administration. There seems to be little information on exactly how the founders of the RMA actually got the law enacted. It was, in effect, a coup of major proportions. It is not even clear exactly who the actual founders were.
The general attitude of the line ministries in New Zealand was traditionally anti-conservationist and dedicated command and control. In 1990, New Zealand was the most highly regulated country outside of the Soviet Union. Even after passage of the new law many departments found it difficult to revise their methods of control. One key official in the Ministry for the Environment said the Act resulted in, "total chaos."
Many, if not most, government departments in the Asia Pacific Region would object to the concept of reorganization and decentralization of power mandated by New Zealand's Resource Management Act. However, the increasing costs of regulating environmental issues and the general failure of governments to cope with rising populations, falling levels of employment, and drastic threats to natural resources, soils, and public health all combine to create a situation where governments may have little choice but to consider a total revision of their legal and administrative structure along the lines of New Zealand.
Fiji is in the process of trying to emulate the RMA with little success - not because of a fault in the concept, but because the Fiji law does not actually mirror the New Zealand legislation in its critical simplicity and drastic restructuring of government. One critical fault of the Fiji RMA is that it sets up a parallel decision making body that is outside the decision process of Cabinet. Cabinets are not keen to have more than one decision making national bodies and, not surprisingly, Fiji's cabinet has not officially reviewed the proposed law even though the proposed legislation has been ready for years. At present, the Fiji administration receives significant artificial life support from foreign aid, so it does not have to change.
| Process of decision making and implementation: |
Policies and measures: Most countries have environmental acts, which does not completely address the resource management aspects and the degradation of natural resources continue. In most cases there are a host of acts which govern each natural resource and very often they dont compliment each other and consists of many gaps. These laws are command and control, and have been very ineffective in halting the threat to environment. Hence, this act is very unique. However, it is not clear as who was responsible for enforcing the act, the process taken to formulate it and its implementation.
Integrating stakeholders:
|
|
