1 Background
Property rights are an integral element in the management and use of resources. Property rights define who has an interest in a resource, and the extent or nature of that interest. They are defined by custom, convention and law and they affect the behaviour of people managing and using a resource. Property rights assigned to economic goods determine the way they are produced and managed.
Water quality is an economic good because it is valued and used by a number of parties. Activities which affect water quality therefore have a potential benefit or disbenefit to the extent that they have an impact. Where these benefits or disbenefits occur to parties other than the person making the decision, they create what are known as externalities. Because of the nature of water most activities which affect water quality do so adversely and this adverse effect is a negative externality for other parties. These negative externalities represent key public policy issues.
The Sustainable Development Programme of Action has identified problems with water quality in New Zealand associated with the impact of human activities. Discharges which affect water quality are generally divided into point source and non point source. Point source (PS) discharges can occur from effluent treatment plants or stormwater, factories and a large range of domestic or other industrial sources. They are distinguished by an easily identifiable source and point of discharge. These discharges are considered to be generally well controlled in New Zealand now, and there would be few significant PS discharges remaining which are not directly regulated under the RMA (1989).
Despite this level of management there is concern about the continuing degradation of New Zealand's water resources, and attention has moved to non-point source discharges (NPS). These contaminants arise across a more diffuse area, and it is not possible to point to a single location from which the discharge is derived. Agriculture is considered to be the primary source of NPS discharges because materials used in agricultural production, such as fertiliser and pesticides, as well as discharges from the soil and animals, move into both surface and groundwater systems at higher rates than would be observed under a natural system. There are two high profile examples where resources are affected by NPS pollution are Lake Taupo, and the Rotorua lakes. It is estimated that 50% of the nutrient load into Lake Taupo is derived from the 22% of the catchment in pastoral agriculture (EMS 2003b).
The Water Quality project team has developed a plan of action, and the focus for work in on water quality is rural land use impacts on waterways and water quality. The programme recognises that a critical first step is understanding the extent to which the current set of property rights restricts or encourages desired behaviour needed to underpin sustainable development. MFE wishes therefore to understand the way in which stakeholders view their property rights, and whether this restricts or encourages desired behaviour. They have commissioned this study to investigate the nature of property rights associated with NPS discharges to land. The study aims to develop an understanding of the way in which stakeholders view and act upon their property rights to activities undertaken on their land which have water quality impacts.
Note that this study is confined only to impacts on water quality which result from the discharge of contaminants. It does not consider the impacts of land use on matters such as erosion nor the way in which land management impacts on water quantity and thereby quality in affected bodies. The work does not directly address issues of water quality and property rights as they affect Maori. It is intended that the study will run in parallel with a study addressing legal aspects of water quality management.
The following sections discuss:
- the characteristics of property rights
- the characteristics of NPS pollution and the framework for property rights to water quality in New Zealand
- the study approach
- the results
- the implications of the results for understanding behaviour in relation to NPS discharges.
