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To what extent does New Zealand environmental law reflect international trends in environmental protection?
Human development in the last 200 years, and especially in the late 20th century have meant that environmental management has become a crucial policy on an international scale. The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) recognized the immense environmental problems in a 1987 report and stated that sustainable development: defined as 'meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs', is the best way to ensure that the exploitation of natural resources is integrated with social and economic development. (Memon and Perkins, 2000:12) In New Zealand, environmental law was significantly reformed in the later 1980s and early 1990s, with the introduction of the Resource Management Act (RMA) in 1991 being the culmination of almost a decade of reform. The RMA is based upon the philosophy of sustainable management, which has been viewed by various experts as being either derived from (Ministry for the Environment, 1997), related to (Le Heron and Pawson, 1996), or an alternative of (Campbell, 1999) the internationally proposed sustainable development. New Zealand has also been influenced by other international trends, through increased involvement in multi-lateral environmental agreements (MEAs), ensuring that law in New Zealand today definitely reflects international trends in environmental protection.
Before the 1970s, any notion of environmental protection was usually based on natural resource management. Any action undertaken was usually very issue-specific, and based upon a dichotomy between humanity and nature. However this approach has been largely rejected since the 1972 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in favour of a more flexible, sensitive and holistic approach to the environment which has been termed 'environmental management'. (Barrow, 1999) By stating that 'the management of the environment assumes urgency as we become more aware of what is going wrong in our relationship with the natural environment', Benton and Redcliff (1994:14) provide an example of the widespread concern to implement some form of international environmental management strategy to address increasing problems throughout the world. The four key problems have been identified as global pollution, loss of biodiversity, soil degradation and urban growth.
It is in this dire situation that sustainable development has been placed on the international political agenda. The WCED report of 1987 spread the message that environmental management on a global scale needed, because many environmental problems are not restricted to national boundaries (such as ozone depletion and global warming). The report also identified that without a reduction in poverty it would be difficult to counter any damage to ecosystems, clearly establishing a link between society, the economy and the environment. Sustainable development can therefore be regarded as a compromise between a concern with the preservation of nature and the potential for human material development. A precautionary approach to development is essential for sustainable development to occur, this means that the burden of proof that the activity being undertaken is safe must shift from the person being affected to the person who will potentially be causing the problem. (Barrow, 1999)
Environmental management has been criticized by some, especially developing countries, as stifling economic and social development. However, sustainable development attempts to compromise between the three, creating an area where the interests of all three are fulfilled. Biophysical sustainability is defined as 'recognising that human activity has biophysical limits'; social sustainability as 'the promotion of greater degrees of equity between generations and countries'; and economic sustainability as 'the importance of quality rather than quantity of growth while relieving poverty and safeguarding the viability of the resource base.' (Le Heron and Pawson, 1996) The figure above illustrates the 'middle ground' that sustainable development is trying to achieve by combining biophysical, social and economic sustainability.
Other international trends in environmental protection have been the increase in the number of MEAs since the Stockholm UNCED conference of 1972. Further treaties were initiated following the 1992 UNCED conference in Rio de Janeiro - otherwise known as the 'Earth Summit'. MEAs can be described as either 'hard law', which means that specific actions must be undertaken by those who sign the agreement in order to achieve an environmental objective; or 'soft law', which means that certain principles will be respected when approaching a certain issue. (Ministry for the Environment, 1997) The 1992 'Earth Summit' produced five key documents on sustainable development issues, which can be described as MEAs, New Zealand endorsed all of these documents. Two of the agreements were 'hard-law': the Convention on Biological Diversity, which aims to 'conserve biological diversity for its intrinsic value, for our sustainable use of it, and for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources; and the Framework Convention on Climate Change, which has the primary objective to achieve stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrates in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. (Ministry for the Environment, 1997)
The most important 'soft law' produced by the 'Earth Summit' is known as 'Agenda 21', and closely mirrors the 1987 WCED proposal of implementing sustainable development as a solution to the world's environmental problems. Reforming policies to bring together environmental and economic issues; controlling wasteful consumption and production; improving technologies by promoting those which are environmentally sound and use resources efficiently; and integrating trade and environment by making both mutually supportive are key principles of Agenda 21. (Ministry for the Environment, 1997)
Over the past 30 years, New Zealand has become involved in an increasing number of MEAs, and in some cases has initiated discussions on some topics, which has led to the establishment of a MEA. The table below shows how New Zealand's involvement in international environmental affairs has increased dramatically since the first UNCED in 1972:
It is quite clear that international environmental management ideology has changed significantly in the past thirty years. However that does not necessarily mean that New Zealand environmental law has followed the guidelines established by the WCED report or Agenda 21, especially since very few other countries have implemented sustainable development as the basis of their environmental law. In the second part of this essay I will describe the changes that have taken place in New Zealand environmental law in the past ten years, and whether these changes have occurred in accordance with the international guidelines presented above.
During the 1980s New Zealand underwent significant economic, social and administrative restructuring. The commitment of successive governments to free-market, neo-liberal politics can be seen in the environmental management restructuring that was established in parallel with these other changes. (Cocklin and Furuseth, 1994) 'Sustainable management was established as the guiding principle for the allocation of natural resources and the maintenance of environmental quality' (Furuseth and Cocklin, 1995:243); this approach is a branch of sustainable development, according to the Ministry for the Environment (1997). Prior to 1991 New Zealand had a collection of various laws and acts relating to the environment, however these were generally disorganized, issue-specific, and sometimes contradictory. A review of environmental policies, conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1981, identified that these policies needed to be 'co-ordinated better through a more integrated approach when dealing with energy, agriculture, forestry, mining, and other economic development programmes.' (Ministry for the Environment, 1997:4) The restructuring of environmental management resulted in primary responsibility being placed in the hands of local authorities, subject to a national legislation that would broadly outline the methods and objectives necessary to achieve sustainable management. (Ministry for the Environment, 1997)
Sustainable management formed the basis of the Resource Management Act (RMA) that came into effect in 1991. It is therefore critical to analyse what sustainable management means in terms of its application to the RMA, and how it compares with the international notion of sustainable development. According to the RMA, sustainable management is defined as: '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 while:
- Sustaining the potential of natural and physical resources (excluding minerals) to meet the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations;
-Safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil and ecosystems;
-Avoiding, remedying or mitigating any adverse effects on the environment.' (Ministry of the Environment, 1997: 10)
It can be argued that in the New Zealand context there is a notable difference between sustainable development and sustainable management. The RMA concentrates on the environmental effects of activities, and leaves the pursuit of economic and social goals to other mechanisms while attempting to ensure that the sustainability of the environment is not compromised by these activities. The distinction between culture and nature can be seen quite clearly in the RMA, and this contradicts the principles of sustainable development that call for a more integrated approach between the two. (Campbell, 1999) The whole notion of 'sustainable management' has been criticised because of its separation between culture and nature, has been described by Bryant and Wilson (1998: 321) as ' a technocratic problem-solving initiative that has directed little effort to understanding the political, economic or cultural forces conditioning the process of environmental management.' Therefore, although the RMA is derived from the principle of sustainable development, it has a rather more limited charter: as 'attempts were made to exclude broader equity and distributional concerns'. (Memon and Perkins, 2000: 12)
The fundamental shift from resource management to environmental management with the implementation of sustainable development, which is occurring at an international scale, has been implemented selectively by the reforms of environmental law in New Zealand during the 1980s and 1990s. In some respects New Zealand can be seen as going against the trend by using the term 'Resource Management' in the primary environmental legislature, and through its distinction between the environment and social/economic concerns. However, through its commitment to the guiding principle of sustainability, New Zealand has done more to implement the ideas of the WCED report of 1987 and Agenda 21 than most other countries in the world. Through combining international trends with the neo-liberalist political atmosphere of the late 1980s and 1990s, New Zealand has developed a unique environmental legislature, which could be seen as a realistic approach to solving many of the environmental problems faced today.
LIST OF REFERENCES:
Barrow, C.J. 1999 Environmental Management: Principles and Practice, Routledge, London.
Benton and Redcliffe. 1994 Social Theory and the Global Environment, Routledge, London.
Bryant, R. and Wilson, G. 1998 'Rethinking Environmental Management' Progress in Human Geography 23(3): pp.321-343.
Campbell, J. 1999 'Managing Environments' in Le Heron, R. et al Explorations in Human Geography: Encountering Place, Oxford University Press, Auckland. Chapter 9: 251-257
Cocklin, C. and Furuseth, O. 1994 'Geographical Dimensions of Environmental Restructuring in New Zealand' Professional Geographer 46(4): pp.459-467
Furuseth, O. and Cocklin, C. 1995 'An Institutional Framework for Sustainable Resource Management: the New Zealand Model' Natural Resources Journal 35: pp.243-273
Le Heron, R. and Pawson, E. (eds) 1996 Changing Places: New Zealand in the Nineties, Longman Paul, Auckland Chapter 8: 247-259
Memon P.A. and Perkins, H. (eds) 2000 Environmental Planning and Management in New Zealand, Dunmore Press, Palmerston North
Ministry for the Environment 1997 The State of New Zealand's Environment, MfE, Wellington. Chapter 4
World Commission on Environment and Development 1987, Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, New York.