The Breaking Wave: Oceans Reform in Aotearoa New Zealand

Over the past 18 months, the Environmental Defence Society (EDS) has been conducting a first principles policy project looking at the future of our oceans management system. The purpose of the work is to encourage and support a wide-ranging conversation in advance of government reform efforts, and to present a number of ways in which the country could do things differently in the future. We are deliberately not making recommendations (we anticipate a phase 2 of the project in which we do that). For now, all options are on the table for discussion, be they a collection of relatively small-scale changes (for example, clearer policy direction for new industries like offshore energy, or the rollout of more nuanced marine protected areas) or a staggered programme of revolutionary reform (for example, creating a new integrated Oceans Act and new institutions like an Oceans Agency).

This report is divided into three parts. Part 1 looks at what we have now. This includes a description of Aotearoa New Zealand’s marine environment, how we use it, and the problems/challenges this has caused (Chapter 2); a summary of the existing oceans management system and issues with that system (Chapter 3); and the context within which systemic reform would occur, including reform measures currently planned or underway (Chapter 4). This recognises that in undertaking oceans reform, policy makers will not be starting from a blank slate.

Part 2 of the report looks at various options for reforming our oceans management system. In short, this is according to cross-cutting “themes”: norms (worldviews, principles and objectives), tools (specific ways in which the system intervenes to shape people’s behaviours); and structures (how legislation and institutions are split up and designed). Information and money are also important cross cutting themes that flow through all of the above.

Part 3 of the report is more exploratory and seeks to draw some of the theme-based threads and building blocks of Part 2 together. We provide four broad starting points for systemic reform. The first focuses on how we could improve and expand our current oceans management toolkit. The second explores deeper structural changes such as integrating current legislation into an umbrella Oceans Act and establishing an Oceans Agency. The third explores the oceans management system through a te Tiriti o Waitangi lens. And, finally, the fourth approach explores the implications of giving legal personhood to the oceans. Overall, we hope The Breaking Wave will generate a rich and constructive debate about reforming our oceans management system, which is long overdue.