Sustainable Management: a Sustainable Ethic?

New Zealand is a country rich in biodiversity and natural resources, steeped in Maori culture and indigenous values, that legislated for sustainable management under the Resource Management Act 1991. Despite the rhetoric of sustainable management, environmental law and governance in New Zealand continue to grapple with persistent challenges: · New Zealand is a significant contributor to global biodiversity but has one of the highest species extinction rates due to continued habitat loss and invasion by pest species. · While New Zealand has a plentiful supply of clean freshwater, water demand from agriculture and urban growth is increasing and water quality is getting worse with elevated nutrient levels in almost 50% of rivers and aquifers. · Environmental management is devolved to local authorities that have largely been left in a policy vacuum in the absence of national policy statements or standards. · Political decision making by local authorities on policy statements and plans has been captured by property rights arguments and voluntary approaches to protecting biodiversity on private land, heritage and landscape have been prevalent. · Recognition of Maori interests in resource management, e.g. allocation of natural resources, has not been reflected in practice New strategies are however emerging for promoting environmental justice and using the law to advance sustainability. National policy statements are being gazetted in relation to freshwater management, indigenous biodiversity, and renewable energy. Regional rules have been prepared allowing nitrogen offsetting between properties to provide flexibility for landowners to meet the new regulatory requirements. Co-management of freshwater resources has been enacted to ensure Maori participation in environmental decision-making. Critical thinking has emphasized the role of sustainable management, as an ethical concept that, like justice, our law should seek to embrace, and that will require major structural reforms. My paper will explore the New Zealand experiment in legislating for sustainable management in its domestic, comparative and international context. It will likely conclude that while the current resource management reform programme provides an opportunity to lay some ghosts to rest, the history of ongoing legislative reform indicates that major structural reform is unlikely