Full Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education, Issue ...

88Davis and ThrelfallResource Management ActNational Environmental Standards and RegulationsNew Zealand Coastal Policy StatementMinister of ConservationRegional Policy StatementRegional CouncilsRegional Coastal PlanRegional CouncilsRegional PlansRegional CouncilsDistrict / City Policy StatementsDistrict or City CouncilsDistrict PlanDistrict or City CouncilsDistrict / City Bylaws and StandardsDistrict or City Councils / Water and SanitationRegulatory FrameworkNational Policy StatementsMinister for the EnvironmentOther Management PlansIwi Management PlansFisheries and Other RegulationsPlans of Adjacent CouncilsFigure 2. Resource management document hierarchy.Source: Ministry for the Environment 2001, modified.In legal, economic, and social terms, water isregarded as a public good in New Zealand. Regionalcouncils, that is government that is comprised ofthe territory governed by several local councils,administer most aspects of freshwater, whilelocal councils in turn are primarily involved inregulating local land use decisions. Furthermore,regional councils retain regulatory provisionsover regional land use. No entity may take, use,dam, divert, or discharge to any water (or heat orenergy from water, or heat or energy from materialsurrounding geothermal water) unless expresslyallowed by a rule in a regional plan, granted in aresource consent or falling within a limited numberof exemptions. Rights to take, use, dam, divert, ordischarge have fixed terms, while at the same timeexisting use rights, some of which are significantand for extended periods of time are recognized.The English Common Law approach to waterwas abandoned with the 1967 Water and Soils Actin place of administrative control, reinforced inthe 1991 Resource Management Act (Berry andCowper 1997, Deans 2004a). Primary legislationwith respect to water and IWRM are the 1991Resource Management Act, 1987 ConservationAct, 2002 Local Government Act, and 1841 Treatyof Waitangi.Together, these acts and re-organization ofregional and local councils produced: (a) wholesaleprivatization of the country’s resource baseand infrastructure, (b) redrawing of the internalpolitical map using catchment boundaries as theprimary organizing principle, (c) amalgamatinglocal councils, and (d) explicitly adoptingsustainability as the dominant national policy forrenewable natural resource management (Burtonand Cocklin 1996). At the same time efforts wererenewed to reconcile European and Maori (pre-European) cultures and Maori resource claims andenvironmental values (Orange 1987, Ward 1999,Government of New Zealand 2004, 2005).Resource Management ActIn October 1991, the Resource ManagementAct became the governing legislation for nearlyall resource use in New Zealand. The purpose ofthe Resource Management Act is “...to promote thesustainable management of natural and physicalresources” (Government of New Zealand 2005: 38).Within the context of the Resource ManagementAct, the environment is defined as encompassing…ecosystems and their constituent parts,including: (a) people and communities, (b) allnatural and physical resources, (c) amenityvalues and (d) the social, economic, aestheticand cultural conditions which affect the mattersstated or which are affected by these matters...(Government of New Zealand 2005: 19).The Resource Management Act is effects-basedlegislation that provides a framework for managementand mitigation of adverse environmentalimpacts of activities. The Resource ManagementAct proposes that “sustainable management” beachieved through explicit management of the effectsof activities of local and regional councilsand private entities. The Resource ManagementAct sets the framework for the control of air, land,and water based on a hierarchy of documents, including:(1) policies, (2) plans, and (3) resourceconsents (Figure 2).The Resource Management Act co-opted mostof the 1967 Water and Soils Act and its 1981amendment. It sets out five matters of nationalimportance regarding water: (1) preservation ofthe natural character of the coastal environment,UCOWRJOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY WATER RESEARCH & EDUCATION