Executive Summary
New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is the area offshore from 12 to 200 nautical miles. This zone holds not only a wealth of biodiversity, but also economic wealth-creating opportunities, such as fishing, petroleum mining and shipping. Our EEZ connects us to the rest of the world, via undersea telecommunication cables, and ships and aircraft passing through the zone.
This report has been produced by the Ministry for the Environment with the aim of looking at how environmental effects are assessed and managed in New Zealand's EEZ. It is a 'think piece' report, designed to stimulate debate and inform subsequent, more detailed thinking and analysis as a national Oceans Policy evolves.
The report is structured into three key sections.
Current environmental legislation in the EEZ and management gaps
The first section canvasses what environmental legislation currently covers the EEZ and identifies management gaps. Existing legislation protects marine mammals and wildlife, controls the disposal of wastes and discharges from ships and offshore installations, and provides for the sustainable use of fisheries resources.
This section also identifies existing activities in New Zealand's EEZ and whether there are procedures for assessing and controlling their environmental effects. We find that although there are existing provisions for some activities, there are significant gaps and omissions. For some activities (such as the laying and maintenance of submarine cables and pipelines) there are no existing regulations designed to protect the environment.
International environmental management of activities in the EEZ
The second section looks at examples of other countries' management systems for their EEZs. Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom all have more advanced regimes to manage environmental effects than New Zealand. Australia's overarching Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and the United Kingdom's strategic environmental assessment provide particularly useful models for informing New Zealand's choices on ways to manage the environmental effects of activities more comprehensively in the future.
This report concludes that there are gaps and inconsistencies in the current management regime, and proposes options for improving environmental management in the EEZ.
Options for improving environmental management in the EEZ
The third section explores four options for improving environmental management in the EEZ, and identifies our preferred approach.
- Option 1 - the voluntary approach: government would work with industries operating in the EEZ to develop appropriate environmental management procedures. Compliance with these procedures would be voluntary (at least initially).
- Option 2 - filling the gaps in current legislation: this would involve putting in place new legislation to cover activities not already covered, and improving the environmental management provisions of existing legislation as necessary.
- Option 3 - one Act to manage all resources in the EEZ: all of the current legislation applying in the EEZ would be replaced by one Act controlling resource management (including the allocation of resources and/or management of their effects) in the EEZ.
- Option 4 - an 'umbrella' Act: a new statute would be developed requiring environmental assessments to be carried out for all activities with potentially significant environmental effects (similar to the approach taken under Australia's Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999). Detailed regulation of specific activities through existing legislation would continue.
The Ministry for the Environment suggests that the preferred approach should be a two-stage process combining two options. Option 1, in which the government would first seek voluntary agreements with industry, is the most appropriate in the short term because there are few activities currently operating in the EEZ. In the long term Option 4 (the 'umbrella' act approach) provides the most flexibility to provide for the range of existing and potential future activities in the EEZ. This would be a new piece of legislation requiring an assessment of environmental effects for all activities that have a significant effect on the environment. The Act would allow for a consistent approach to be taken to the assessment of environmental effects in the EEZ, and would be based on the nature and extent of different types of activities and their associated risks.
