Gary Taylor: Collaboration called for on major environment issues

Gary Taylor

Opinion

Two big ideas came out of last week's environmental summit in Auckland.

There was broad agreement that the biggest environmental challenge in New Zealand after climate change is management of our fresh water resources. Water quality is declining and water is scarce in some regions.

Speakers questioned whether rural councils were doing enough to address pollution from dairying and making sensible decisions on allocating water for irrigation. They concluded that performance across the country was, at best, uneven. Some advocated abolishing regional councils, many of which are dominated by farmers, and replacing them with the proposed environmental protection authority, which they say would be more objective and science based.

And there was agreement that we should try a new approach - collaborative governance - to address big environmental problems.

This concept evolved in Scandinavia and involves key stakeholders getting around the table and coming up with an agreed way forward that government then implements. There was a sense that litigation should be a last resort instead of the main way we resolve environmental problems.

Across these issues, the Government has an active and ambitious environmental reform agenda. It wants to protect the integrity of our clean, green "100 per cent pure" brand. A nation so dependent on that brand for its tourism and primary sector industries cannot afford to allow a credibility gap to develop between the image and the reality. New Zealand could lead the world in environmental management, and if we did that we could really add value to our productive sector.

The way forward was set out by the Minister for the Environment, Dr Nick Smith, in a keynote address to the conference. He announced that the Government has bought into the collaborative approach on freshwater issues in both town and country.

The Land and Water Forum, a group of stakeholders who got together after the Environmental Defence Society's 2008 conference, will over the next year try to come up with common understanding and strategies, based on wide consultation, before making recommendations.

This is a first for New Zealand. All the interests in freshwater management - iwi, irrigators, farmers, horticulturists, electricity generators, tourism operators, canoeists, fishers, urban interests and environmental groups - will be engaged in the process.

Arrangements are in place to recognise the constitutional position of the Treaty partner.

It's very encouraging to have the Government back this process. After many years of going to court on countless ad hoc water issues, the idea of finding durable, big-picture, strategic solutions is attractive.

The proposed authority will undoubtedly have a big role to play in the short term working alongside regional councils to implement the new solutions. While the Government is not likely to want to abolish regional councils immediately, they are effectively on notice to lift their performance.

The one dissonant feature to environmental reform is the announcement last week by Local Government Minister Rodney Hide that he wants to reduce council spending on the environment. It was confusing to hear such statements and then have the Prime Minister John Key say that he didn't agree with them. The Government should take a more consistent approach to environmental policy-making.

Gary Taylor is chairman of the Environmental Defence Society, www.eds.org.nz. Papers from the conference are available at www.edsconference.com