Ministerial Conference on
Environment and Development
in Asia and the Pacific 2000
Kitakyushu, Japan 31 August - 5 September 2000
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New Zealand's Resource Management Act of 1991. "Less regulation for better effect." The Resource Management Act has one basic idea: Sustainable Management. This means managing natural and physical resources to everyone's best social, economic and cultural well being while: v Maintaining these resources to meet the needs of future generations. v Safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of the air, water, and soil. v Avoiding, fixing or easing adverse effects of activities on the environment. This recognizes whatever we do will have an impact - or has already had an impact - and that these impacts must be minimized to the greatest extent possible. Basic Action Plan: v You can do what you want to on your own land, as long as the effects do not harm the environment or violate some other law. v You can't do anything to the air, water, public or government land or the coastal zone or to another person's private land without prior consent. You can't, for example, use the water or air or adjacent property to get rid of your wastes and you can't irritate others with excessive noise or smoke without prior agreement. Community participation: A key feature of the Act is public participation. All stages of the development of National, Regional and District policies and plans are to be done with full consultation with the community. Anyone can make submissions and comments and, if unsatisfied, take complaints to either a Planning Tribunal or the Commissioner for the Environment. How the Act plans for sharing the resources without harming them: There are four steps to deciding how to manage resources: 1. The National Government sets up the overall goals on how the environment needs to be cared for. These are published as:
2. Regional Authorities are based on ecosystems. A single Regional Authority would, for example, cover a whole watershed. Each Regional Authority prepares a Regional Policy Statement to integrate resource management for the Region. This explains the resource problems in their Region and how they can be settled. 3. The Regional Authorities make a Regional Plan with rules (like ordinances). Regional Plans deal with things like regional land use, soil conservation, water abstraction and quality, hazardous substances, and waste discharges. 4. City and district authorities develop District plans and make sure they are compatible with the National and Regional Policies and Plans. These are more detailed plans for land use, subdivision, noise pollution, activities on the surface of waterways, reduction of wastes, and other local issues. Regional and District Plans do NOT: * Deal with a community's social, economic or cultural issues. The Act is neutral towards development, but not on the effects of development. * Apply to the use of non-renewable resources such as minerals, except as related mining activities might harm the air, water, soil, coast or marine environment. * Set economic or social goals or promote certain kinds of land uses. Regional and District Plans DO: * Focus on people's actions and their effects on the natural and physical resources. * Provide strategies, agreements and options for how people will work together to achieve the common goal of maintaining the living systems we all depend on. This is a critical idea. The Resource Management Act is a plan to work together to achieve common goals of protecting and improving the life systems of the land and sea. It is not an effort by government to direct and control development and economic activity, but a way to assure whatever people want to do does not hurt others now or in the future. Permission is needed for: * Using private land for some activity that will have an effect on the environment. * Subdividing land for some activity that will have an effect on the environment. * Coastal Permits for doing anything in the coastal area. * Water Permits for taking, using, damming or diverting fresh water. * Discharge Permits for putting anything into the air, land or water. The Act recognizes five kinds of Actions: * Actions automatically allowed by the rules - no permission is needed. * Actions allowed but with conditions depending on the particular request. * Actions that can be denied if they don't meet certain regulations. * Actions that are not prohibited because they were considered unlikely to occur. * Actions that are not permitted. There is one standard form to ask for permission. One part asks for a statement on what might happen to the environment if the project is done (an environmental impact assessment). Little projects don't need much detail, big ones need a lot of information. The applicant must pay to have the environmental impact assessment done. The Councils publish instructions on how to make a request. If someone asks for permission for a project that will have significant effects on the environment, it will require public notification. Meetings are held to discuss the project with the other people in the community and other government agencies. If anyone is unsatisfied with the decision they can ask the Planning Tribunal for a rehearing. Anyone can ask for changes in a district or regional plan. The district or regional government can refuse to change or prepare a plan. If they do, the person can go to the Planning Tribunal and argue their case (unless their request is a silly one). Terms of the agreement: Permission to do something lasts a maximum of thirty five years before it has to be renewed. The permission stops after two years if the project does not go ahead. The applicant pays for any environmental assessment and any other information the council wants to have on your project. There is a fee for making a request. The permission can have conditions. The applicant might need to pay compensation to other people in the community if the action will harm other's environmental interests. Sometimes a person must put up a bond or insurance against harming others or the environment. Otherwise the community might have to pay if something goes wrong. Monitoring and Enforcement: Anybody can complain if the project harms them or the environment. After a meeting, the Planning Tribunal or the Council can decide to stop the project. In an emergency, the project can be stopped without a meeting. If the project harms someone or the environment, the permit holder might have to pay to set things right. If something goes wrong, the applicant has to pay unless the applicant can prove it was somebody else's fault. If a company is convicted, the directors and managers are also guilty.
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