Environmental Management in New Zealand - Assignment Example

Environmental Management in New Zealand Executive Summary New Zealand has entered the 21st century which is a period that has been witnessing a hike in environmental awareness all over our planet. Indiscriminate human activities have radically altered and damaged the environment to an unprecedented extent. The growing concerns amongst the natives of New Zealand coupled with that of the global community led to the evolution of the environmental laws and policies that we see today. The concerns of the public found expression in the environmental planning processes, the interactions between the various interest groups, and the environment-oriented campaigns carried out by environmental agencies of New Zealand. Similarly the global concerns found expression in the various discussions held on the international platform that have led to the creation of many treaties and agreements that have significantly altered and in a way improved our laws and policies regarding the environment. The combined efforts of the environmental agencies, the native inhabitants, the business houses and the government have been instrumental in bringing about the positive changes that one can see today in New Zealand’s natural environment. The well-thought-out plan of action and systematic procedure followed by the country to improve its environment has set an ideal example for the rest of the world. Introduction The environmental management system in New Zealand underwent extensive reformation during the period from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. New Zealand’s approach to handling the environmental issues, prior to the 1990s, was highly fragmented and disorganized. It was only in the 1940s that the awareness of environmental issues began to be a part of the country’s national consciousness, leading to passing of legislations, setting up of advisory bodies, and allocation of management duties to the government, local agencies, committees and councils. The nation’s first specimen of a systematic environment management measure was the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Act passed in the year 1941. The act laid down the specifications for setting up of local catchment boards to regulate the conservation of water and soil across various towns and villages. This stance of using topographical boundaries as a tool for conserving water was something totally novel and unheard of at that point of time. But soon it became very popular with other nations who looked forward to execute it as an inexpensive yet effective method. To supervise the water conservation activities under this program, a national committee called the National Water and Soil Conservation Organization (NWASCO) was set up. The committee was monitored by the country’s Ministry of Works and Development (MWD) which is the government’s wing responsible for carrying out all sorts of public works. Activities relating to river control, drainage, flood protection and soil conservation were carried out by the local landowners with the help of the subsidies provided by the government to the catchment boards through the ministry. The committee was later expanded to include a special unit responsible for conducting research activities on techniques of soil and water management. (Roche, 1994; Acheson, 1968) The period during the 1950s and the 1960s saw the emergence of a range of new rules, conventions and regulatory bodies. For instance, the Wildlife Act was introduced in the year 1953, following which many new national parks were opened in the country. By the end of the 1960s, the public’s awareness regarding environmental issues had reached its peak, which led to the launch of a series of public campaigns voicing their protest against clearing of natural forests, water pollution at the seaside, air pollution at Christ Church, hydro development at Lake Manapouri and some international practices such as nuclear testing and whaling. The growing public concern and the increasing pressure on the government to devise and enforce better plans for environmental protection was evident in the form of a range of new laws that were passed during this period. Some of these were the Water and Soil Conservation Act of 1967, the Clean Air Act of 1972, the Town and Country Planning Act of 1977, the Marine Mammals Protection Act of 1978, the Pesticides Act of 1979, the Toxic Substances Act of 1979 and the National Development Act of 1979. (Ministry for the Environment website) With the onset of the 1970s the international influences began to assume a greater significance in the context of New Zealand’s environmental management practices. By 1972, New Zealand had been a part of nine international agreements concerning environmental issues, whereas in 1960 it started with just one. The country attended the first Earth Summit in the year 1972 at Stockholm. The Summit was held as a part of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. The discussions on the environment gained a high impetus especially on the international platform after the conference. The pace thus gained by the issue soon paved the way for the Second Earth Summit which was held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. At present New Zealand is party to fifty international treaties on environmental causes, a phenomenon that is well-corroborated by the variegated set of domestic laws pertaining to the realms of atmospheric pollution, endangerment of biological species and depletion of ozone layer. (Ministry for the Environment, 1993) Another mark of the international influence exerted on New Zealand is the review of its performance by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The OECD has published favorable reviews of New Zealand’s environmental policies as well as its performance in this domain. (OECD, 1981, 1996) The Major Players According to the report published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 1981, there are mainly three kinds of government agencies in New Zealand that take care of environmental management. Firstly, there are the administrative bodies and advisory agencies that primarily have to do with any particular aspect of the environmental policy. Such bodies include Commission for the Environment, Nature Conservation Council, Environmental Council, the Wildlife Division of Internal Affairs, National Parks Authority, Historic Places Trust, and the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust. The second group of managing bodies consists of the government departments that are responsible for managing a given sector of the national economy. These include the administrative agencies such as the Forest Service, the Department of Lands and Survey, the Ministry of Works and Development, the Department of Health, the National Chemicals Board and the National Water and Soil Conservation Authority. Thirdly there are the administrative and governmental bodies that handle the natural resources in any given sector of the economy. Such bodies, as the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Ministry of Energy, help in laying down the framework for working of the environmental policies and regulations. (OECD, 1981) The OECD report however remarked that the environmental policies of New Zealand lacked proper direction and coordination. It recommended a better guided and integrated approach to be followed with respect to the environmental issues in the realms of agriculture, forestry, energy and mining. As a result, the government decided to reorganize the local and central governments of the country and also to modify or amend any of the environmental laws that had turned obsolete or redundant. Subsequent to a series of reforms introduced in the working of the environmental management practices, the chief responsibility of management of the environment was handed over to the local governments, subject to legal sanction from the national government. The role of the central government was restricted to merely guiding the local bodies on certain issues, or in some cases specifying the guidelines and instructions to them. Many laws were passed to lay down the specific targets and procedures made available to the local authorities to assist them in attaining sustainable development. Each region now had certain regional councils and territorial bodies that were assigned the task of handling the impacts of human activities on land, air, water and biodiversity, along with the responsibility of managing issues of explicit national interest such as conservation of nature, protection of endangered species, introduction of new species, use of hazardous substances and protection of the ozone layer. (Memon, 1993) Before the advent of the reforms, the responsibilities for environmental conservation were haphazardly distributed with no specific demarcations amongst the different government agencies. The authorized agencies, though vested with the powers, lacked the required influence to be effective enough. But the matter was soothed out subsequent to the implementation of the reforms in the central government during the period from the year 1986 to 1988. As a part of the reform policy, many erstwhile institutions were abolished. These included the New Zealand Forest Service, the Department of Lands and Survey, the Wildlife Service of the Department of Internal Affairs and the Commission for the Environment. As a replacement for these, a set of new institutions were initiated such as the Forestry Corp, the Land Corp, the Ministry of Forestry, the Department of Survey and Land Information, the Department of Conservation, the Ministry for the Environment and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. These bodies had pre-specified roles to play in the domains of commerce, regulation, administration, policy-making and environmental advocacy. (Buhrs and Bartlett, 1993) Today the roles and responsibilities of each and every department are clearly outlined. The Department of Conservation is responsible for advising the government on conservation policies and for conserving the natural biodiversity, protecting the heritage, promoting concern for nature through spread of public awareness. The Ministry for the Environment is meant for giving advice to the government on sustainable development, for guiding local agencies and private players, and for promoting public education on environment. The task of the Commissioner is to give unbiased advice to the Parliament on environmental issues, to provide an impartial assessment of the environmental activities carried out by the local and central government agencies. (Statistics New Zealand, 1996) Today the main players in New Zealand’s system of environmental management are the local bodies in the form of regional councils, territorial agencies and unitary authorities. These are directed and monitored by the local and central governments of the nation. Apart from them, the non-governmental organizations also play a fairly significant role in the management of environmental aspects in New Zealand. The ministers of the central government are responsible for the overall implementation and supervision of all the environmental laws, for the handling of issues that are of a national concern, and for ensuring the effectiveness of the environment management techniques. The regional councils are local-level bodies that take care of the policy-making and coordination in matters of soil and water conservation, resource management, transportation, pest control and civil defence. Territorial authorities are elected bodies at the city or district level. Their functions are focused on the requirement of the region they serve and are meant to complement that of the regional councils. Their functions include water supply, local roads and transport, recreational facilities, drainage, land development and community development. The Unitary authorities, namely the Gisborne, Marlborough, Tasman and Nelson City councils, work together in order to manage the resources and deliver service, by fulfilling their regional and territorial tasks as have been laid down by the Resource Management Act. The lobbying of the NGOs and their combined efforts has helped a great deal to trigger the public concern for the environment and to bring about the legislative decisions. Some of these are the Royal Society of New Zealand, the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, the Greenpeace, the Maruia Society, the Federated Mountain Clubs, and the Environment and Conservation Organizations. The NGOs, through their power to influence public opinion, have often convinced the government of New Zealand either to frame new policies or to revise the existing ones. (Furuseth, 1995; Ministry for the Environment website) Successes, Challenges and Conclusions Today the native people of New Zealand have developed a strong sense of care and concern for their environment. They have made efforts to assess the value of their lost resources and of those resources which are under threat, so as to take appropriate measures to check and undo the negative effects of environmental degradation. According to a poll conducted in the country in 1993, over 46 percent of the respondents said that if needed for the protection of the environment, they would not mind undergoing a decline in their economic growth. 33 percent of the respondents in the same survey agreed to pay much higher amounts of taxes and also to bring down their standard of living, if that would help to protect their environment. 17 percent respondents reported that they were a part of some or the other environmental group. 50 percent said that they had donated money for the cause of an environmental campaign within the span of the last five years. (Gendall et al., 1994) Nowadays the awareness of the social and economic value of sustainable environment management is a trend that gaining pace not only in the society of New Zealand but also in its legal machinery. The key elements of environmental legislation like the Conservation Act, the Fisheries Act, the Resource Management Act and the Forests Act are all infused with the idea of ecological sustainability. This emphasis on sustainability is also accompanied by developmental practices in the sphere of environmental management including the use of economic mechanisms and precautionary measures that are aimed at identifying those who cause damage to the environment and then transferring to them the costs of the damage caused by them. The governments at the central and the local levels are setting targets for sustainable improvement of the environment through various statutory frameworks, strategies and policies. New systems are being developed to monitor and evaluate these programs in a systematic fashion. The local, regional and national agencies are busy devising indicators to measure their performance in this front. Encouragement for research on sustainable environment is being extended in the form of direct funding and addressing the problems in these areas. Not only the agencies and regulatory bodies but also the businesses have realized the value of a clean and safe environment. They are hence developing and implementing a series of upgraded environmental management systems in order to improve their organizational performance. Given such a high level of awareness and concern for the environment in the public, not many industries or people can afford to deliberately get involved in actions that harm the environment. In 1994, the Christchurch Press revealed that in its survey of 384 manufacturers, 75 percent felt that preserving the country’s high reputation for its environment was something in their own good interest. (McDowall, 1994) Keeping in the view the rapid pace of work in New Zealand and the enthusiasm of its people it is expected that very soon the country will be successful in attaining a sustainable balance between the old practices and the new conventions. It will be able to achieve a right mix of the original native elements and the modified versions of the same in its natural environment. The key to achieving these targets however will be a systematic information system that makes it possible to spread environmental awareness, to measure the success of the environmental legislations and to recognize the areas that need greater focus and coordinated efforts to fulfill the dream of a safe, healthy and sustainable environment. References: Acheson, A. R. (1968). River Control and Drainage in New Zealand: And Some Comparisons with Overseas Practices. Ministry of works. Buhrs, T. and Bartlett, R.V., 1993. Environmental Policy in New Zealand - The Politics of Clean & Green? Oxford University Press: Auckland. Furuseth, O., & Cocklin, C. (1995). Institutional Framework for Sustainable Resource Management: The New Zealand Model, An. Nat. Resources J., 35, 243. Gendall P.J., Hosie, J.E. and Russell D.F. 1994. International Social Survey Programme: The Environment.Department of Marketing, Massey University: Palmerston North. McDowall, R.M. (1994). Gamekeepers for the Nation: the Story of New Zealands Acclimatisation Societies 1861-1990. Canterbury University Press: Christchurch. Memon, P. A. (1993). Keeping New Zealand green: recent environmental reforms. Dunedin: University of Otago Press. Ministry for the Environment. (1993). Securing the Future - An outline of the main outcomes and achievements of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit 1992). Ministry for the Environment: Wellington. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (1981). "Environmental Policies in New Zealand". OECD: Paris. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (1996). "Environmental Performance Reviews New Zealand ". OECD: Paris Roche, M. M. (1994). Land and Water: Water and Soil Conservation and Central Government in New Zealand, 1941-1988. Historical Branch Department of Internal Affairs. State of New Zealands Environment 1997. Ministry for the Environment, The Government of New Zealand. Retrieved from: https://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/ser/ser1997/html/index.html Statistics New Zealand. (1996). New Zealand Official Yearbook 1996. Statistics New Zealand, Wellington. Read More