The RMA's approach to environmental management is firmly rooted in the concepts of sustainable management and the integrated management of resources. Other approaches adopted included 'effects-based' assessments, principle- and policy-based environmental management and subsidiarity.
Sustainable management
The RMA is underpinned by the concept of sustainable management that provides for a balance between environmental protection and development. It is a much narrower concept than the widely used term 'sustainable development', being focused more on ecological rather than social or economic considerations.
Despite this ecological focus, the RMA includes a broad definition of ‘environment’ that includes people and nature as follows (section 2):
(a) Ecosystems and their constituent parts, including people and communities; and
(b) All natural and physical resources; and
(c) Amenity values; and
(d) The social, economic, aesthetic, and cultural conditions which affect the matters stated in paragraphs (a) to (c) of this definition or which are affected by those matters.
Therefore, while the Act does not explicitly seek to achieve social or economic outcomes, decisions are to take into account the impact of the use of natural and physical resources on social, cultural and economic matters. In some cases, social, cultural and/or economic benefits can outweigh ecological effects.
Integrated management of resources
The RMA has ambitiously sought to integrate the management of air, land, fresh water and marine areas into one piece of legislation. Regional councils have as one of their key functions the preparation of objectives, policies, and methods to achieve integrated management of the natural and physical resources of the region (section 30(1)(a)). Regions include water catchments and extend to the edge of the territorial sea. District councils are to focus more narrowly on the integrated management of the effects of land use (section 31(1)(a)).
A hierarchy of policies and plans prepared at the national, regional and district levels helps to promote integration. In addition, national environmental standards developed under the RMA can require the adoption of consistent standards at the regional and district levels. Integration between decision makers is facilitated through the requirement for joint hearings, in most cases, where an activity requires resource consents from more than one agency. Joint policies and plans can also be prepared by two or more councils.
'Effects-based' approach
The RMA focuses on managing the effects of activities rather than regulating the activities themselves. This heralded a move away from a more prescriptive planning approach under the Town and Country Planning Act 1977. That Act sought to guide the location of activities and to separate incompatible activities. The RMA adopts a more enabling approach which seeks only to intervene where activities are likely to result in unacceptable environmental impacts. This approach has the advantage of focusing on the reduction of environmental impacts. It can also, however, result in environmental planning being reactive rather than proactive, in plans being complex and difficult to understand, and in poor management of cumulative and diffuse impacts.
Principle and policy-based environmental management
Environmental management under the RMA is to be guided, in the first instance, by the principles set out in Part II of the Act and the policies set out in any national and regional policy statements. Decisions on whether or not to allow activities are made within the context of these broader guidelines. This framework of broad principles and policies allows significant room for discretion in individual cases. This means that the effectiveness of environmental management is largely dependent on the quality of decision-making at local and regional levels.
Subsidiarity
Under the RMA, decision-making has been decentralised to local and regional levels in most cases. This is based on the principle that decision-making is best carried out at the level closest to the resources affected. In general, decisions about land use are made at the territorial authority level; decisions about fresh water, soil conservation and air pollution are made at the regional council level; and decisions about the management of the coastal marine area are shared between the national and regional levels. Central government can directly intervene in local decision making where consent is sought for a proposal of national significance either through a call-in procedure or on the recommendation of the Environmental Protection Authority.
Relevant legal provisions
Part II of the RMA (set out in full here)
Further information
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