Natural resource management policy in New Zealand

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This research project was focused on the natural resource management policy based on the Resource Management Act of 1991 (RMA) in New Zealand. The RMA is very unique experiment in the world because its aim is to realize sustainable management in regional level through integration of natural resource management and complete public participation. We tried to grasp a present state of implementation of the RMA by direct interviews with practitioners, stakeholders and local residents. Goals of the research project were : 1) to evaluate the RMA as a sustainable natural resource management policy ; 2) to evaluate planning process in the RMA to verify effectiveness of public participation. Case studies were mainly held in Taranaki Region in North Island and Waimakariri District in South Island. Both cases are well-known as successful public participation.As results, we could point out following problems in implementation of the RMA : incompatibility between Neo-Liberalism and Environmentalism in one government policy; impracticability of sustainable management under status-quo basis ; some serious conflicts between regional councils and territorial authorities in terms of integrated resource management ; incompatibility between unregulatory method and public participation ; ineffectiveness of unregulatory method in urban areas.However, as the RMA needs very many times to establish plans, quite a number of the RMA plans in regions and districts are now under planning. Also resource consents for development are implemented temporarily. Several years seem to be needed to complete planning stage all over the country. Therefore, reinvestigation in future is also needed to complete the study.