Chapter 2: Our environment and people

Geography, flora, and fauna

New Zealand’s geographic isolation and the long period without human habitation allowed a unique natural environment to flourish.

Our environment is known for the richness of its biodiversity, with more than 80,000 species of native animals, plants, and fungi. Much of our flora and fauna are not found anywhere else on earth.

Demography

New Zealand is home to just over four million people. Our population increased by almost 11 per cent over the last decade. On the whole, the New Zealand population is ageing, with our average age now 36 years.

Most New Zealanders live in urban areas within 50 kilometres of the coast. Three out of four of us live in the North Island. While our overall population density is low, it is high in major urban areas.

Environmental values

The environment dominates or influences nearly every aspect of New Zealand life. There is a growing understanding that our environment is not only our iconic wilderness and rural areas, but also the urban areas where most of us live and work.

Increasingly, New Zealanders are taking action to conserve the environment for future generations in ways that protect our economic well-being, social systems, and cultural wealth.

The economic value of the environment

We frequently use images of our natural scenery and rural heritage to present New Zealand to the rest of the world. Our country is recognised internationally for its stunning landscapes, forests, and valuable agricultural and horticultural land.

The environment is vital to our economic well-being. Our land- and sea-based primary production and tourism sectors both rely on New Zealand’s ‘clean and green’ reputation, generating about 17 per cent of New Zealand’s gross domestic product.

Environmental legislation and governance

Management of natural resources in New Zealand is governed by several statutes, particularly the Resource Management Act 1991, Local Government Act 2002, and Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996.

Environmental governance in New Zealand is shared between central government and local government. Iwi authorities, industry groups, community interest groups, and non-government organisations also play a role in managing the environment.

New Zealand is a small island nation in the southwest Pacific Ocean. Its geographic isolation, maritime location, relatively recent geological formation, and continuing tectonic activity have created diverse and unique ecosystems.

This chapter sets the environmental context for Environment New Zealand 2007. It presents a high-level overview of:

• the key biophysical factors that interact to shape New Zealand’s environment
• the New Zealand people, including where we choose to live and how we interact with the environment
• environmental values and how these have changed over time
• the economic value of New Zealand’s environment
• New Zealand’s environmental legislation and governance.

Geography

New Zealand – also called Aotearoa New Zealand – consists of two large islands (the North and South Islands) and several smaller islands (such as Stewart Island and the Chatham Islands). It is situated in the southwest Pacific Ocean between 34 degrees and 47 degrees of latitude south (see Figure 2.1).

New Zealand’s land area of about 270,000 km² (approximately 26,822,000 hectares) is about the same as that of Japan or the United Kingdom. The country’s land mass extends more than 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) along its main north-northeast axis.

Our location on the boundary of the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates has shaped our landforms. The resulting earth movements have produced hilly and mountainous terrain over two-thirds of the land, with frequent earthquakes in most parts of the country and a zone of volcanic and geothermal activity in the central North Island (Ministry for the Environment, 1997).

The terrain, climate, rock type, and vegetation have interacted to produce more than a hundred different soil types. These can be grouped into three main categories: pumice soils (in the central North Island volcanic area); ash soils (common in Taranaki, the Waikato, parts of Northland, and western Southland); and sedimentary soils (on plains, hill country, and coastal areas throughout both main islands). Despite this diversity, New Zealand’s soils are generally low in nutrients because the rocks they come from are geologically young (Ministry for the Environment, 1997).

Figure 2.1: New Zealand’s geography, 2007

Flora and fauna

New Zealand is known for the wealth of its biodiversity, with more than 80,000 species of native animals, plants, and fungi. It is especially rich in bird, insect, and marine life. Although as much as 80 per cent of the country’s biodiversity lives in the marine environment, little is known about many of our marine species.

New Zealand’s early separation from its geographic neighbours, Australia and Antarctica, played a large role in shaping its flora and fauna. Because our native plants and animals developed in isolation for 60 million to 80 million years, many of them are unique.

Among our most notable species are the:

• kiwi, which lays one of the largest eggs in the world compared with its body size
• kākāpō, the world’s heaviest and only flightless parrot (Powlesland et al, 2006)
• kea, one of the world’s only mountain parrots
• giant wētā, the heaviest insect (Williams, 2001)
• tuatara, a reptile of prehistoric origins
• giant kauri tree, which is among the largest in the world and holds the record for the greatest timber volume of any tree.

While most of the world’s ferns grow in tropical climates, New Zealand hosts an unusually large number of ferns for a temperate country. Primeval trees, mosses, and lichens continue to flourish here, and flightless, ground-dwelling birds have evolved to fill niches that elsewhere in the world would have been taken by mammals. Indeed, New Zealand’s only endemic land-based mammal is the bat, of which we have several species. By comparison with other countries, we have comparatively few native flowering plants and land-based vertebrate animals.

New Zealand’s isolation also means that a high proportion of our species are not found anywhere else on earth. All of our frogs and reptiles, more than 90 per cent of our insects, about 80 per cent of our plants (other than mosses, liverworts, and hornworts), and a quarter of all of our bird species are found only in New Zealand. Forty-four per cent of our known marine species live only in New Zealand waters.

Climate

New Zealand’s climate is influenced strongly by geographic factors. These include:

• its location in a latitude zone with prevailing westerly winds
• the large area of surrounding ocean
• mountain chains that modify weather systems as they move eastward, so that climatic contrasts are much sharper from west to east than they are from north to south
• tropical weather patterns (that is, storms that start out as tropical cyclones elsewhere can redevelop in the region, bringing warm moisture-laden tropical air that interacts with colder polar air).

As a result of these factors, New Zealand’s weather is more variable than that of larger, continental countries.

The average rainfall experienced in most urban areas is between 600 millimetres and 1.5 metres a year. However, in the mountain ranges, annual rainfall often exceeds 5 metres, and in the Southern Alps, annual rainfall can be more than 10 metres a year.

Regions exposed to weather from the west and southwest experience showery weather, and rain falls in these areas on about half of the days of the year.

The rest of the country experiences much lower rainfall, particularly in eastern areas. Areas in the South Island to the east of the main ranges – Central and North Ōtago and South Canterbury – are the only areas of the country with average rainfalls of less than 600 millimetres, and generally have only about 80 rain days a year. In the North Island, the driest areas are central and southern Hawke’s Bay, the Wairarapa, and Manawatū, where the average rainfall is between 700 millimetres and 1,000 millimetres a year.

Average temperatures at sea level decrease steadily from the north to the south, from about 15°C in the far north of the North Island to about 10°C in the far south of the South Island (MetService, 2007).

Rivers and lakes

Dynamic tectonic movement means New Zealand’s landscape is dominated by mountains: more than three-quarters of our land area is higher than 200 metres above sea level. As a result, steep and fast-flowing stony streams and rivers dissect the landscape. Because New Zealand is relatively narrow (450 kilometres at its widest point), these mountain-fed rivers quickly reach the sea after flowing through narrow and then winding river beds.

Rivers also feed numerous lakes, of which 3,820 are more than 1 hectare in area. Most lakes were formed through volcanic or glacial activity, or after the formation of land barriers (Ministry for the Environment, 2006). Lake Taupō in the North Island is New Zealand's largest lake, with an area of about 62,000 hectares and a maximum depth of 163 metres.

As well as having numerous mountains, lakes, rivers, and geothermal areas, New Zealand has 360 glaciers in the South Island, which carry away snow and ice from the many peaks of the Southern Alps.

Coasts and oceans

Compared with its land area, New Zealand has one of the longest coastlines of any country in the world, at more than 18,000 kilometres (Department of Conservation, 2007).

New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone extends from 12 nautical miles off the coast to 200 nautical miles offshore, an area of 4.4 million km². This is the sixth largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world, and forms a marine area that is 14 times bigger than New Zealand’s land area.

New Zealand’s vast marine area contains a diverse range of marine ecosystems, which provide habitats for many species. Scientists have identified almost 16,000 marine species in New Zealand waters, although it is estimated that tens of thousands of species may still be undiscovered (Gordon, 2007).

New Zealand’s changing demography has implications both for the way we live our lives, and for the impact our lifestyles have on the environment.

Human settlement

Humans are very recent additions to the New Zealand environment from an ecological perspective. All New Zealanders are migrants to these islands. The Polynesian ancestors of Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, arrived here about 30 generations ago, some time between 1000 AD and 1350 AD.

The first European explorer to see New Zealand was the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1642 AD (365 years ago). The next European contact came nearly 130 years later, when the British explorer James Cook reached New Zealand. By contrast, Asia, Australia, and Melanesia were colonised at least 50,000–60,000 years ago (about 2,400 generations), Europe 35,000–40,000 years ago, and the Americas at least 15,000 years ago (Ministry for the Environment, 1997).

Size and age of our population

The March 2006 Census of Population and Dwellings established that New Zealand’s islands were home to 4,027,947 people (Statistics New Zealand, 2007a). The population has increased by around 11 per cent since the 1996 census.

The median age in 2006 was 35.9 years (that is, half the population was younger than this age and half older), compared with 33.0 years in 1996 (Statistics New Zealand, 1996; 2007a). This shows that New Zealand’s total population is ageing, despite having an increasing proportion of young Māori and Pacific New Zealanders.

Distribution of population in rural and urban areas

Most New Zealanders live in urban areas. While many New Zealanders identify with our rural landscape or wilderness areas, 86 per cent of the population lives in urban areas. This makes New Zealand one of the most urbanised nations in the world. About 90 per cent of New Zealanders’ time is spent in the built environment (Keall and Baker, 2006).

New Zealand has 138 towns and cities, many of them located close to the coast. Across the country, 90 per cent of the population lives within 50 kilometres of the coastline (Dahm et al, 2005).

Three out of four New Zealanders live in the North Island. The increase in population from 1996 to 2006 was greater in North Island towns and cities than in the South Island (12.6 per cent, compared with 7.6 per cent).

The three regions with the fastest growing populations from 1996 to 2006 were Auckland (with a 21.9 per cent increase), Tasman (17.5 per cent), and the Bay of Plenty (14.7 per cent) (Statistics New Zealand, 2007a).

In 2006, the most highly populated regions were Auckland (1,303,068), Canterbury (521,832), Wellington (448,959), and the Waikato (382,716). The Bay of Plenty, Manawatū–Wanganui, Ōtago, Northland, Hawke’s Bay, and Taranaki all have populations of between 100,000 and 300,000. Population distribution by region is shown in Figure 2.2.

The pattern of a low overall population density with high densities in the major urban areas has implications for New Zealand’s ecological footprint (see chapter 3, ‘Household consumption’) and for environmental policy and resource management.

Figure 2.2: Population distribution by region, 2006

Distribution of population by ethnicity

New Zealand’s population is made up of an increasingly diverse range of ethnic groups. The 2006 census identified 232 different ethnic groups, with 22.9 per cent of New Zealanders born overseas. Not only is the country’s ethnic make-up changing, but 10.4 per cent of people identified with more than one ethnic group in 2006.

In New Zealand, one in seven people identifies as Māori (see Figure 2.3). The total number of Māori increased by 39,048 (7.4 per cent) between the 1996 and 2006 censuses, to a total of 565,329. Māori in the 2006 census were affiliated to 136 iwi.

The number of people identifying with one of the many Asian ethnic groups more than doubled in New Zealand between 1996 and 2006, increasing from 173,505 in 1996, to 354,552 in 2006. The Pacific ethnic groups had the second largest increase over the same period, increasing 31.5 per cent, from 202,236 to 265,974 people.

New Zealand Europeans remain the largest ethnic group in New Zealand, totalling 2,609,592 people (67.6 per cent of the population) in 2006. The 2006 census reported a new ethnic category of ‘New Zealander’ for the first time and 429,429 people identified this way. (In previous years, ‘New Zealander’ responses were included in the category New Zealand Europeans.) The category ‘Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African’ was also reported for the first time in the 2006 census and represented 34,743 respondents.

Figure 2.3: Ethnic distribution in New Zealand, 2006

Distribution of population by gender

The 2006 census showed there are 96,705 more females (2,062,326) than males (1,965,621) in the population.

Average household size

In 2006, the average size of a New Zealand household was 2.7 people. However, a large number of New Zealanders live alone: in 2006, 328,299 people lived in one-person households (23 per cent of all households). This was an increase of 28 per cent from 1996, when 256,569 people lived in one-person households (21 per cent of all households).

Couple-only and one-person households are the fastest growing household types in New Zealand and are projected to increase the most over the next 15 years (Ministry of Social Development, 2006).

The environment dominates or influences nearly every aspect of New Zealand’s national life. New Zealanders are an outdoor-loving people, with a way of life that is shaped around action and interaction with the environment. Many New Zealanders regularly walk in parks, visit the coast, swim or fish in rivers or lakes, and play outdoor sports (Phillips, 2007).

Many New Zealanders also relate to the rural environment, with its outdoor lifestyle and focus on agricultural and horticultural production. Our farming heritage is an important element of our national identity (Jacomb, 2002).

As a nation, we frequently use images of the natural environment to present New Zealand to the rest of the world. Our natural scenery attracts tourists and underpins our ‘clean and green’ image internationally.

A recent survey found that 87 per cent of New Zealanders consider the environment is important or very important to them (Growth and Innovation Advisory Board, 2004). In the same survey, New Zealanders rate the quality of the natural environment as being the third most important aspect of New Zealand, behind quality of life and the quality of education.

New Zealanders are also increasingly considering environmental values when they travel. According to a survey conducted by Lonely Planet, 61 per cent of New Zealand travellers said they had purposefully travelled in a low-impact way in the past (for example, catching a bus rather than flying) and 90 per cent of New Zealanders said they would or might do so in the future (Lonely Planet, 2007).

Māori environmental values

The Polynesian ancestors of the Māori people came to New Zealand by canoe between 1000 AD and 1350 AD. After Polynesian settlement, fire had a more widespread and frequent impact on the environment. By about 1600 AD, about a third of the original forest cover had been cleared and replaced by tussock, bracken, and light scrub. With the change in landscape, a quarter of New Zealand's endemic land-based birds, including eight species of moa, and a fifth of endemic seabirds became extinct (Ministry for the Environment, 1997).

Over subsequent generations, Māori acquired in-depth knowledge of the New Zealand environment and developed effective conservation practices. These practices became customs that iwi and hapū used to manage access to and limit the depletion of the environment. These customs continue to shape Māori approaches to environmental management today.

Traditionally, Māori relate to New Zealand as tangata whenua (people of the land). The land, rivers, and mountains of each person’s tribal area are the first things many Māori mention when they introduce themselves formally.

In Māori terms, all living things, including natural and physical resources, possess a mauri (life principle or life force). The mana (authority or prestige) of the tangata whenua is closely related to how well they manage their taonga (highly valued resources or objects), and how successfully they preserve mauri. Therefore, each iwi has responsibilities and obligations for environmental management in its own rohe (area).

For Māori, the concept of kaitiakitanga is of primary importance. Kaitiakitanga is a fundamental concept of the guardianship of a resource for future generations. It is practised as part of tikanga Māori (customary values and practices).

Māori conservation tools

To manage people’s impact on the environment and on mauri, Māori developed the practice of rāhui. Rāhui are periods when no one may take any resources or particular resources (such as shellfish) from an area. These bans may also limit the size of the species people may take, or the amount of their total catch (Hutching and Walrond, 2007). Today, rāhui are often imposed to conserve a resource or to allow a species to regenerate.

In addition to rāhui, Māori traditionally limited harvests of certain species by season and by restricting access to areas such as fishing grounds. Māori also applied other forms of tapu (restriction) to prevent mauri being degraded (for example, through the pollution of fishing areas by human waste, or fishing grounds being damaged by nets and lines).

Changing environmental values

Pākehā or European relationships with New Zealand’s environment have also changed over time. Whalers and sealers arrived in New Zealand in the 1790s, followed a decade or so later by missionaries and traders. Along with large quantities of seal oil and fur, and whale oil (which markedly reduced seal and sea lion populations and took the southern right whale to near extinction), early traders exported harakeke (flax) and native timber to European markets.

Rapid European settlement from 1840 led to the large-scale clearance of land for farming, the establishment of pasture, the reshaping of river systems for gold mining, timber felling, the draining of wetlands, and the introduction of a large number of exotic plants and animals. According to Molloy,1998:

… in the half century from 1860–1910, New Zealand underwent possibly the most rapid landscape transformation of any nation; over 6.5 million hectares of lowland forest (nearly 25 percent of the total land area) were cleared – as much as was destroyed by fires during 1000 years of Polynesian settlement.

New species and pests

Thousands of new species have been introduced to New Zealand, many of which have proved beneficial. In fact, nearly all of the country’s economically important species have been introduced; it would be hard to imagine the current landscape without sheep, cattle, deer, grain crops, apples, grapes, kiwifruit, and pasture grasses.

Until human settlement, native species had no need to defend themselves against hunting, habitat destruction, and the more than 25,000 introduced species. In the thousand or so years since human settlement, many animals (including three species of frog, a bat, the huia, and almost 50 other bird species) have become extinct, and the survival of others is threatened (Ministry for the Environment, 1997; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2006).

Early conservation efforts

As early as the late 19th century, New Zealanders were voicing concerns about the sweeping changes taking place in our environment. In particular, public discussion grew about the effects of land clearance, which had become more obvious with regular floods and soil erosion in settled areas.

Notions of conserving and protecting areas became more prominent from the start of the 20th century. Tongariro National Park was established as the country’s first national park in 1887 when Te Heuheu Tūkino IV, the leader of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, gifted it to the nation. As more national parks were established, New Zealanders, as well as international tourists, visited them for sightseeing and mountaineering.

Soil conservation, land-use planning practices, and flood management were also initiated at this time. For example, the River Boards Act 1884 established a national network to manage rivers. This was followed by the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Act 1941, which established local catchment boards to coordinate soil and water conservation across whole catchments. This approach of managing land and water in an integrated way, and using natural catchment boundaries as a management unit, represented a world first in environmental management.

More recently, major works such as the Manapōuri and Clyde Dams in the 1970s raised concerns about the impact of infrastructure development on the environment. New Zealanders’ environmental awareness has also been influenced by the growth of new global values which popularised conservation of the environment. Today, the New Zealand public, led by community interest groups and non-government organisations, expect to participate in decision-making that affects the environment to a much greater extent than in the past.

Changing attitudes to the environment

A regular survey that examines New Zealanders' perceptions of the environment identified that the major environmental concerns have shifted over the past few years from air quality, waste disposal, industrial pollution, and introduced pests, weeds, and diseases to water pollution, other pollution, and climate change (Hughey, 2002; 2006).

Attitudes towards the environment have also changed as New Zealanders have come to understand that the environment constitutes not only our rural and wilderness areas, but also the urban areas where most of us live and work.

Another change over the last decade has been the growing focus on sustainable development. Sustainability involves making choices that conserve the environment for future generations, while still maintaining our economic well-being, social systems, and cultural wealth. The current focus on sustainability highlights how actions that benefit the environment can also have social, cultural, and economic benefits, and other implications, and vice versa.

Sustainability is now a mainstream concept among businesses, with 90 per cent of surveyed businesses agreeing that sustainable practices are required across the whole economy (Jayne, 2007). Seventy-eight per cent of surveyed businesses also believed New Zealand would benefit internationally if it became more sustainable.

When surveyed, 77 per cent of New Zealand companies had an environmental policy in place (Massey University, 2005). Environmental reporting, also known as triple bottom line or sustainability reporting, is becoming a more common business practice.

New Zealand’s economic wealth and well-being are heavily dependent on our natural environment.

Renewable energy sources – the water that flows in rivers, steam that comes out of the ground, and wind that spins turbines – provide about 66 per cent of New Zealand’s electricity (see chapter 5, ‘Energy’).

Cattle and deer, which are sources of high-value dairy and meat products, graze in outdoor pastures year-round without having to be housed in barns. Our industrial, agriculture, and horticulture sectors also benefit from irrigation taken from our waterways.

Export goods such as wool, food crops, wood, wine, and natural cosmetic products are other examples of high-value goods that New Zealand is able to produce because of its natural environment.

Value of primary production

Our primary production sectors rely heavily on the environment. New Zealand’s temperate climate provides beneficial growing conditions and ensures good pasture and crop growth, and we have plenty of rainfall in most parts of the country. While it is difficult to put a dollar value on these and other benefits that the environment provides to our primary production sectors, awareness is growing in New Zealand of the significant value of our environment to our economy.

Forestry products exported from New Zealand also contribute significantly to our economy: exported forestry products were valued at $3.6 billion for the year ending 31 March 2007 (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 2007). In 2006, forestry and wood processing employed 20,909 people (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 2006).

The export of agricultural products makes a significant contribution to our economy. In the year ended 31 March 2007, this amounted to $16.1 billion (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 2007). In 1996, agricultural exports had contributed $5.3 billion, or 5.5 per cent of gross domestic product. Two agricultural exports, dairy products and meat, were the top two export earners for New Zealand in 2006, making up 18.1 per cent and 13.5 per cent of New Zealand’s total exports respectively (Statistics New Zealand, 2007d).

Between 1996 and 2006, the value of New Zealand’s commercial fishing industry increased 40 per cent, from $2.7 billion to $3.8 billion (Statistics New Zealand, 2007b).

One example of the increasing economic value of New Zealand’s primary products is the merino wool industry. New Zealand businesses have developed a range of offshore markets for super-fine merino fashion and outdoor clothing, positioning their products at the high-value end of the international fashion industry. New fibre blends have also been commercialised, including possum fur and cashmere.

The sale of many of our export products depends on the value that consumers place on New Zealand’s environment being ‘clean and green’.

Value of tourism

New Zealand’s tourism industry relies on the country having a positive environmental image to attract international tourists. In the year ended 31 December 2006, more than 1 million people visited New Zealand for the main purpose of holidaying. This was a 57 per cent increase from the year ended 31 December 1999 (Ministry of Tourism, 2007).

International tourism has become one of the country’s largest foreign exchange earners and a driver of many regional economies (Department of Conservation, 2006). International tourism contributed $8.3 billion, or 19.2 per cent, of New Zealand’s total export earnings in 2006 (Statistics New Zealand, 2007e). Eighteen per cent of the tourism industry is directly involved in ecotourism or adventure tourism (Tourism Strategy Group, 2001).

In addition, the tourism sector accounted for the direct employment of 108,600 employees and the indirect employment of a further 74,500 full-time employees in 2005 (Statistics New Zealand, 2007e). This is equivalent to tourism supporting around one in every 10 jobs in New Zealand.

The majority of tourists visiting New Zealand (91 per cent) indicate that a key reason they come here is for our landscape, with over half of the international tourists visiting national parks and reserves during their stay (Ministry of Tourism, 2005).

Combined, the export earnings of New Zealand’s top two earners, tourism and land- and sea-based primary production in 2006, were about $22 billion. This equates to around 17 per cent of New Zealand’s gross domestic product.

It is clear that the New Zealand environment contributes significantly to our economy, and to our standard of living and way of life.

Environmental legislation

Management of natural resources in New Zealand is governed by a number of statutes. These include:

• Resource Management Act 1991
• Local Government Act 2002
• Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996
• Conservation Act 1987 (and its accompanying protected areas legislation)
• Fisheries Act 1996.

Environmental management is also integrated in other statutes. These include:

• Aquaculture Reform (Repeals and Transitional Provisions) Act 2004
• Biosecurity Act 1993
• Climate Change Response Act 2002
• Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act 2000
• Environment Act 1986
• Fiordland (Te Moana o Atawhenua) Marine Management Act 2005
• Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004
• Land Transport Management Act 2003
• Ozone Layer Protection Act 1996
• Queen Elizabeth the Second National Trust Act 1977.

Resource Management Act 1991

The Resource Management Act 1991, which has been significantly amended twice in the past 10 years (2003 and 2005), has a single, overarching purpose: to promote the sustainable management of natural and physical resources.

The Act defines sustainable management 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’.

The Act also provides for the:

safeguarding of the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil, and ecosystems’, and ‘avoiding, remedying, or mitigating the adverse effects of activities on the environment’.

The Act’s three central functions are to:

• manage the environmental effects of activities on air, water, and land
• manage the use of publicly owned or managed natural resources (water, geothermal resources, the surface of lakes and rivers, river beds, and the foreshore and seabed)
• control the discharge of contaminants to land, air, and water.

Responsibility for decision-making and managing these functions is generally devolved to the community most closely affected by the use of the specific resource. This makes local government a critical part of environmental management in New Zealand, much more so than in other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries with different regulatory regimes.

Central government has powers under the Resource Management Act to develop national policy statements on matters of national significance, national environmental standards, and water conservation orders. These statements, standards, and orders are binding on local authorities. For example, councils must give effect to national policy statements in their policy statements and district or regional plans, and national environmental standards must be followed.

The 1994 New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement is the only national policy statement in place under the Resource Management Act (Minister of Conservation, 1994). The statement sets out policies for managing the natural and physical resources in New Zealand’s coastal environment.

In 2004, the Government introduced 14 national environmental standards for air quality. Of these standards, seven are to prevent toxic emissions; five are to protect ambient (outdoor) air quality; one is a design standard for new wood burners to be installed in urban areas; and one requires landfills with more than 1 million tonnes of refuse to collect or destroy their greenhouse gas emissions or reuse them for energy generation. (See chapter 7, ‘Air’ for more information on these standards.)

Standards or national policy statements on water, flood management, electricity transmission, and telecommunications infrastructure are also being developed.

The Resource Management Act also gives the Minister for the Environment the power to establish heritage protection authorities and requiring authorities.

Local Government Act 2002

As well as having day-to-day responsibility for environmental management under the Resource Management Act, local government is also responsible for community well-being, including environmental well-being, under the Local Government Act 2002.

The Local Government Act is intended, among other things, to encourage communities to address all four aspects of sustainability: social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being, in the present and for the future. Communities identify the outcomes they desire in each area, and these form the content of a long-term council community plan. These plans integrate the vision and goals for councils and their communities to work towards.

A long-term council community plan does not override plans created under the Resource Management Act or other statutory documents. However, it is expected that all council activities, including those required under other Acts, will contribute to achieving community outcomes.

Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996

The Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 regulates the importation and manufacture of hazardous substances such as explosives and flammable, corrosive, toxic, and eco-toxic substances. The Act also regulates the introduction of new organisms into New Zealand, including genetically modified plants, animals, and other living things.

The passing of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act in June 1996 represented one of the most significant reforms to environmental legislation since the Resource Management Act.

The Act’s implementation has been staged. Provisions relating to new organisms took effect in July 1998, followed by provisions for hazardous substances, which came into force in July 2001. A five-year transitional period for hazardous substances ended in July 2006.

The Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act established the Environmental Risk Management Authority to make decisions about hazardous substances and new organisms. The Minister for the Environment appoints the Authority’s eight members.

The Authority considers applications to import, develop, or field-test new organisms, including genetically modified organisms. It also decides about the importation or manufacture of hazardous substances.

The Authority is supported and advised by:

• Ngā Kaihautū Tikanga Taiao, a statutory committee that provides advice and assistance on policies, processes, and applications that have significant implications or interest for Māori
• an Ethics Advisory Panel, which the Authority established to help it consider ethical and spiritual matters.

Conservation Act 1987

The Conservation Act 1987 was developed to promote the conservation of New Zealand’s natural and historic resources. It also established the Department of Conservation (DOC).

Some key functions of DOC under the Conservation Act are to:

• manage land, and natural and physical resources, held under the Conservation Act
• advocate the conservation of natural and physical resources
• promote the benefits of conservation of natural and physical resources
• preserve (as far as practicable) all indigenous freshwater fisheries, and protect recreational fisheries and freshwater habitats
• foster recreation and allow tourism on conservation land, to the extent that use is not inconsistent with the conservation of any natural or historic resource.

Fisheries Act 1996

The Fisheries Act 1996 implements a system for ensuring sustainability of New Zealand's fishing resources. The Act aims to provide for the use, conservation, enhancement, and development of fisheries resources so people can provide for their social, economic, and cultural well-being while:

• ensuring the potential of those resources to meet the foreseeable needs of future generations is maintained
• avoiding, remedying, or mitigating any adverse effects of fishing on the aquatic environment.

The Act therefore incorporates sustainability as its underlying principle. This means the long-term viability of stocks for each species, the biological diversity of the aquatic environment, and human interests in using fishing resources are all considerations under the management system. A Quota Management System provides for the sustainability of fisheries resources. Under this system, the Minister of Fisheries can put in place fishing quotas for specific stock.

Environmental governance

In New Zealand, environmental governance is shared between central and local government. It is also shaped by the participation of iwi authorities, industry groups, community interest groups, and non-government organisations.

Ministry for the Environment

The Ministry for the Environment provides advice, information, and leadership on New Zealand’s environment. It was established under the Environment Act 1986.

The Ministry oversees the administration of the Resource Management Act 1991, and has specific functions under this Act, as well as the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, Ozone Layer Protection Act 1996, and Climate Change Response Act 2002.

Department of Conservation

The Department of Conservation preserves and protects the natural and historic resources of national parks, reserves, and other protected areas in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments. The Department also manages protected native wildlife and non-commercial freshwater fisheries. It was established under the Conservation Act 1987.

Other government agencies and Crown entities

Other government agencies and Crown entities with responsibility for the environment include:

• Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
• Biosecurity New Zealand
• Ministry of Fisheries
• Environmental Risk Management Authority
• Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority
• Ministry of Transport
• Ministry of Health
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• Ministry of Economic Development
• Ministry of Research, Science and Technology.

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment is an independent officer who reports directly to Parliament.

The Commissioner’s functions under the Environment Act 1986 include:

• reviewing the effectiveness of environmental management by central and local government
• investigating and advising on any matter that may adversely affect the environment, as requested by Parliament or the public
• disseminating information
• encouraging actions to protect the environment.

Local government, regional councils, and territorial authorities

Local government oversees environmental management at a local level.

Regional councils as well as unitary authorities (councils that combine the functions of a territorial authority and a regional council) are responsible for developing regional plans and policy statements under the Resource Management Act. Their powers cover:

• managing freshwater, groundwater, and coastal water
• conserving the soil
• allocating and managing geothermal energy
• controlling the discharge of contaminants to air, land, and water
• managing the foreshore, water column, and seabed, including implementing controls on aquaculture in coastal waters.

Under other legislation, regional councils are also responsible for:

• regional land transport planning
• regional parks
• the biosecurity control of plant and animal pests
• river management, flood control, and mitigation of erosion
• environmental education
• harbour navigation and safety, marine pollution, and oil spills
• regional civil defence preparedness and response.

Territorial authorities and unitary authorities are responsible under the Resource Management Act for controlling the effects of land use, noise, and subdivision. They manage these functions through district plans.

Under the Local Government Act 2002, Land Transport Management Act 2003, Reserves Act 1977, Health Act 1956, and other related legislation, territorial authorities are also responsible for:

• infrastructure (that is, roading and transport, sewerage, and water, including stormwater)
• management of reserves
• environmental education
• community development
• environmental health and safety.

Local authorities must recognise and provide for the relationship of Māori with the environment under the Resource Management Act. This includes having particular regard to kaitiakitanga and taking into account the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Local authorities must monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of their policies and plans in meeting these many functions, and report on this at least every five years.

Kaitiaki groups

Kaitiaki groups have an important role in environmental management. Kaitiaki are closely involved in monitoring their local environments, which may include streams, lakes, estuaries, coastal areas, and wāhi tapu (sacred sites).

Over the last decade, tangata whenua and local and central government have built closer working relationships on matters of environmental governance. Iwi management plans, which incorporate iwi environmental goals, are one of the ways iwi become involved.

Sixty-one per cent of local authorities have formal and/or informal memoranda of understanding, protocols, joint management agreements, or service level agreements with local iwi (Ministry for the Environment, 2007).

The Treaty of Waitangi settlement process has also led to management partnerships being established that support the kaitiakitanga of iwi.

Community groups

Many New Zealand community groups work at the local level to clean up streams, revegetate riparian areas and coastal dunes, and promote practical community actions in areas such as waste minimisation, recycling, and energy efficiency. Many regions operate environment centres, which provide educational resources and meeting places for environmental community groups.

Local government processes also support the participation of local communities in environmental decision-making. Any member of the public can make a submission on a district or regional plan, a regional policy statement, or a long-term council community plan.

The participatory nature of the Resource Management Act and Local Government Act gives all New Zealanders an opportunity to help shape local policies for managing environmental impacts.

Business and industry groups

New Zealand businesses are increasingly taking the environment into account in their day-to-day activities. Business and industry groups also actively work with central and local government to improve the way they manage their activities to minimise their impacts on the environment. Examples of such partnerships between business and government include the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord and the New Zealand Packaging Accord.

In New Zealand, there are now a number of business groups and associations that have sustainability as their primary focus (for example, the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Business Network).

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