Pathway to Oceans Reform: EDS Oceans Reform Final Report

Aotearoa New Zealand’s oceans are large, diverse and extremely valuable. They support most of the country’s wildlife, a sizeable blue economy, and have strong cultural and social value. Although often perceived as wild and untouched, the oceans are experiencing profound and increasing impacts from human activity. It is the inshore coastal ecosystems that are degrading the most, due to multiple anthropogenic pressures from land and sea activities.

There have been numerous reports and scientific papers that reach similar conclusions. Our oceans management system is not up to the job of managing the oceans well and we need to urgently fix it. In this report we have provided as series of recommendations on how to fix the system. They include developing a National Oceans Strategy, National Marine Spatial Planning Framework, Marine Protected Areas Act and Oceans Act along with an Oceans Commission to act as a champion and voice for the ocean. The time has passed for talking, we now need to get on with oceans reform.