Project overview
EDS is conducting research to inform new and enduring resource management laws.
EDS is undertaking research to inform a durable response to the Government’s Resource Management Act 1991 replacement laws. The project will:
- Review the principles upon which our core environmental laws should be based, including what a system based on property rights might mean.
- Evaluate the economic costs and societal risks of delaying fundamental reform and of constantly lurching from one system to another as governments change.
- Identify common ground among political parties, including parts of the Natural and Built Environment Act 2023 that could be revived.
- Examine innovative and evolving ideas from other jurisdictions, including the pros and cons of splitting environmental statutes in different ways (eg into planning and environment).
- Closely consider the transitional and implementation arrangements that will be needed to manage change over time.
A key focus for the work will be the desirability of design features that facilitate cross-party and stakeholder support, a system that respects and complies with te Tiriti o Waitangi, and a system that draws on the best experiences of other jurisdictions (while carefully assessing their suitability for the Aotearoa New Zealand context).
We thank Forest and Bird and the Borrin Foundation for supporting this project.
Please contact Dr Greg Severinsen at greg@eds.org.nz for further information.