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Sections 5 re-visited: A Critique of Skelton and Memon's Analysis.
... According to Upton et al. (2002), section 5(2) was intentionally drafted to emphasize biophysical constraints and move away from the overly broad and unweighted list of socioeconomic and environmental objectives in the previous Town and Country Planning Act 1977. However, Fisher (1991 was among the first to caution that the definition of sustainable management was possibly ambiguous, requiring clarity with meaning of the word 'while' which connect what he termed 'management function' and the 'ecological function'. ...
... However, Fisher (1991 was among the first to caution that the definition of sustainable management was possibly ambiguous, requiring clarity with meaning of the word 'while' which connect what he termed 'management function' and the 'ecological function'. The most grammatically correct would be the 'biophysical bottom line' interpretation, where the ecological function is regarded as a number of constraints within which this utilitarian ethic must function (Fisher 1991;Upton et al. 2002). However, Fisher (1991) noted that a 'single integrated purpose' definition could be made where providing for human well-being was equal with and not subordinate to the 'biophysical bottom line' paragraphs (a) to (c) of section 5(2). ...
... As Fisher (1991) warned, the Environment Court of New Zealand moved towards a 'broad overall judgement' approach to section 5(2) (Skelton and Memon 2002;Upton et al. 2002). 5 Decision-makers allowed on a case by case basis to make an overall judgement that weighed all benefits and negative effects of resource use (Upton et al. 2002). Consequently, therefore, resource users have been able to discount significant biophysical values if they were able to demonstrate major economic and social dividends. ...
This discussion paper was funded by WWF-UK and the Planetary Boundaries Initiative.
... During debate over its wording, the Resource Management Bill Review Group noted that '[o]ne disadvantage of adopting the term "sustainable development" [in the Act] is that the concept embraces a very wide scope of matters including social inequities and global redistribution of wealth. It is inappropriate for legislation of this kind to include such goals' (MfE, c1992, citing the Report and Recommendations of the Review Group on the RM Bill, 1991: 6;Upton et al., 2002). However, the Act still embraces the philosophy of sustainable development, that is, working within biophysical limits while meeting human needs. ...
... This lack of understanding and weak attention to the condition of vulnerability, in turn, affects how disaster risk is treated in both countries. New Zealand's inclusion of hazard risk in the RMA in 1991 may also have fallen short of considering vulnerability due in part to the focus at the time on environmental bottom lines (Upton et al. 2002) and the general reluctance in a neoliberal society to consider more social risks, such as vulnerability. This is reflected in the relatively limited attention given to Social Impact Assessment in the New Zealand projects. ...
Disasters are no longer viewed as natural events, but as the results of ill-planned development and poor governance. It has been generally accepted that instruments such as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reduce disaster risks of development projects. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the EIA process in addressing disaster risks in development projects in Sri Lanka and New Zealand, two countries with quite different quality of governance. We find that governance quality does not result in substantive improvements, and neither of the two EIA processes is found to be effective in addressing disaster risk. This is due to inadequate policy integration of disaster risk into the environmental legislation that governs the EIA process. The results suggest that more specificity is needed in legislative provisions.
... Many consider the RMA concept of sustainable management to be a narrower concept than the Brundtland Report definition of sustainable development in that it does not explicitly seek to achieve social or economic outcomes (e.g., MfE 1997; Upton et al. 2002). This view has resulted in a number of regional councils limiting their planning focus to the management of adverse environmental effects through their regional plans rather than a more integrated holistic perspective that is inclusive of environmental, economic, cultural and social considerations. ...
Models play a central tool in the development and implementation of management strategies. In this paper we identify four major modeling purposes that are important for understanding and managing complex socioenvironmental systems: prediction, exploratory analysis, communication and learning. Each of these purposes highlights different system characteristics, role of uncertainty, the properties of the model and its validation. We argue that uncertainty has no meaning in isolation, but only relative to a particular modeling activity and the purpose for which a model is developed (e.g., when a model is developed for predictive purposes uncertainty needs to be eliminated as much as possible, while when a model is developed for exploration uncertainty can be considered a source of creative thoughts). Here, we specifically investigate the implications different purposes have in dealing with uncertainties. We present a set of strategies modelers can use to guide their developments. In light of these concepts, the modeling activity is re-contextualized, from being a process that aims at representing objectively an external reality, to one that can only be defined according to the characteristics of the problem at hand: its level of complexity, the knowledge available, the purpose of the model and the modeling tools. We present an example from the adaptive management field.
... One view is that it encapsulates a type of sustainable development, with a requirement for due regard to the environment in an overall broad judgement approach (Skelton & Memon, 2002). The opposing view of the original promulgators of the legislation (Upton et al., 2002) is that the RMA is permissive with regard to development, subject to a bottom line requirement that environmental damage is 'avoided, remedied, or mitigated' (RMA, s 5). ...
New Zealand faces unusual water challenges. The country relies heavily upon agricultural exports. This has resulted in the adoption of a permissive, devolved system of water management. However, the intensification of land use has resulted in significant water degradation, and stretched the capacity of local government to address competing water needs. Water resource management has largely been devolved to local government with limited national policy guidance creating further tensions. This paper summarizes recent water policy and reform in New Zealand, and discusses how central government is attempting to reinvigorate national guidance for future water management.
... Upholders of the Treasury view assert that the RMA was promulgated as``the primary vehicle for achieving ecologically sustainable development'' (Armstrong, 2001, page 11). Upton et al (2002) contend that the act promotes the sustainable use of biophysical resources regardless of any claims for special dispensation on other grounds, pointing to the removal of powers granted to councils under section 4 of the 1977 Town and Country Planning Act to direct and control development``in such a way as will most effectively promote and safeguard the health, safety, convenience, and the economic, cultural and general welfare of the people and the amenities'' of their area. On their reading, the primary function of the new regime is to limit``the adverse spillover effects of people's activities'' on the environment, leaving businesses and communities to work out by themselves the actions required to comply with this new approach to the development process (Upton et al, 2002, page 12). ...
The 1991 New Zealand Resource Management Act established an effects-based planning system intended to safeguard the biophysical resource base. The act and its subsequent practical implementation are deconstructed using an ecological modernisation framework. This demonstrates that many of the key policy instruments of the act can be accommodated within an ecological modernisation discourse. However, elements of discursive democracy introduced by the legislation have subsequently been impaired by technocorporatist legal formalism. This has prompted considerable debate about the perceived high process and compliance costs and the restricted public scrutiny of effects-based compliance in the new planning system. The reduced emphasis on socioeconomic effects within land-use development plans has impeded the promotion of sustainable spatial development strategies, frustrating attempts to deliver the ‘superindustrial ecological switchover’ sought by proponents of ecological modernisation. Recent legislation to extend the strategic powers of local government may help resolve this issue.
The mandate for making decisions on allocation of freshwater resources in New Zealand has been devolved to regional councils by the Resource Management Act (RMA) enacted in 1991. The RMA promotes a sustainable management approach to integrated management of air, water and land. Growing demand for an increasingly scarce supply of sustainably allocatable water under a relatively buoyant market-led export economy based on primary production has increased competition and conflicts between different stakeholders. Regional councils have found it difficult to satisfactorily address such conflicts under the current RMA institutional framework and conflicts have escalated in regions such as Central Canterbury. As discussed in this paper, the objective of the Sustainable Groundwater Allocation Research project is to identify and address the underlying causes of these conflicts with the aim of enhancing the potential for integrated water management in New Zealand through adaptive governance. Progress to date suggests that institutional arrangements for water governance that facilitate strategic planning based on collaborative multistakeholder processes with cognitive and social learning are key ingredients in this quest.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-180) Thesis (LL.M.)--University of Waikato, 2004.
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