Resource Management Law Association of New Zealand
Abstract
The opening years of the 1990s brought great promise and hope for biodiversity. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the “Earth Summit”, was held in Brazil in 1992, following a worldwide outcry at the loss of species and habitats in the 1980s, symbolised by alarming rates of destruction in the Amazonian rainforest. It seemed that the same collective will that had brought about the Montreal Protocol in 1987 (The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (agreed on 16 September 1987 and entered into force on 1 January 1989)) to phase out ozone-depleting substances would now move to protect life on earth. In this article, we set out how New Zealand has responded over the last quarter of a century to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which arose from the Earth Summit. We consider these responses in light of the alarming findings on the state of our coasts and oceans in Our marine environment 2016 (Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand Our marine environment 2016 (October 2016)). This is the first environmental domain report required under the Environmental Reporting Act 2015. We examine whether the policy framework developed since the Earth Summit to maintain biological diversity (“biodiversity”) is adequate to prevent the ongoing loss and degradation of marine habitats and consequent decline in biodiversity, or whether the decline can be more fully attributed to a systemic implementation failure. We conclude there is a comprehensive policy framework in place, but this is poorly implemented. We set out a number of key reasons for the systemic failure to protect and maintain biodiversity, and suggest some urgent solutions
