Coastal Restoration Trust of New Zealand

Coastal Dune Ecosystem Reference Database

How New Zealand's coastal and marine management compares with international 'best practice' Conference Paper

Author
Peart, R.
Year
2005
Journal / Source
Seachange05: Managing our coastal waters and oceans, Auckland
Month
November
Pages
20
Summary
New Zealand is a maritime nation, settled by some of the greatest seafaring peoples in the world. The country’s oceans are large and are very rich in marine life and minerals. New Zealanders are passionate about their oceans and the use and management of ocean resources is an integral part of Māori culture and identity. New Zealand has been an international leader in some aspects of oceans management. In many respects, however, oceans management in New Zealand has fallen behind. This paper investigates how well New Zealand is doing compared to international ‘best practice’ and what we might need to be done to improve the country’s performance. In order to identify what international ‘best practice’ oceans management might be, the paper explores the development of an international framework for oceans governance, the environmental obligations that this places on coastal countries, and how these might translate into an implementation framework. The paper then goes on to assess New Zealand’s performance within this framework, identifies areas of weakness, and proposes strategic actions which could be taken to address some of these areas.