Strategic environmental assessment in New Zealand:
Enhancing policies and plans
Nick Taylor and Richard Morgan
This year our conference is at Lincoln University from 8–9 December. The main conference follows our usual two-day format with invited speakers addressing this year’s theme: the use of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) to support policy and plan making processes.
Why did we select SEA as the conference theme? SEA is regarded internationally as the primary way by which impact assessment concepts and tools are applied to the development and implementation of policies, plans and programmes. In New Zealand, policies and plans help us deal with strategic issues under the Resource Management Act. There is also guidance under other legislation such as the Local Government Act and Conservation Act, for example.
Internationally, SEA is used extensively to address the big issues, such as climate change, sea-level rise, regional-scale land use changes such as urban growth and renewal, agricultural intensification, and the development of infrastructure systems such as transport planning, or water distribution. The objectives of applying SEA are typically to enhance the resilience of ecological, economic and social systems, and increase the sustainability of our environment. The methods of SEA derive very closely from those applied in project impact assessment.[1] This is also the case in New Zealand, for instance in developing district and regional plans and plan changes, urban growth plans, or land and water management plans for our catchments.
Some tools are available here (e.g. section 32 analysis of policies and plans) but are they enough for the challenges we face? Often the analysis in these tools is narrowly specific, considering cost and benefits through an economic lens, for instance, rather than a wider, integrated consideration of all outcomes: ecological, social, health, cultural and economic.
Anticipating and managing the impacts of development and change on the environment, society and the economy is essential at the strategic level as well as for projects. Our conference will consider how well strategic environmental assessment is used in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific. How does experience here compare to international experience and what are the challenges that need addressing? In a final roundtable session we expect to develop some strategies that NZAIA, and its associated organisations such as the EIANZ, can apply to improve practice.
We have many great speakers, including the keynote speaker Dr Jenny Pope from Perth, speakers from the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), and our own convenor Prof Richard Morgan, who are familiar with the development and application of SEA internationally and will address the efficacy of SEA in our oceanic region. How has SEA developed over time, to what purpose, with what tools and facing what problems in enhancing performance by impact assessment professionals? Do we have practitioners with the necessary methods and skills in SEA, and the ability to apply them?
Examples and case studies that we are addressing at the conference will provide plenty of opportunities to explore with participants how SEA is being used in New Zealand. These include planning for natural hazards and adverse events, land-use change and urbanisation, catchment planning, conservation and biodiversity management, tourism and iwi plans. We will also explore how affected people and communities are brought into the process of planning through collaborative and similar techniques.
The topics that speakers are addressing provide plenty of opportunities to address the wide ranging application of SEA in this country – often these applications are undertaken by interdisciplinary teams, or those with interdisciplinary skills, who are not necessarily utilising SEA frameworks per se, or distinguishing their work as SEA, but they are in fact undertaking SEA. An example is SEA actively applied at present by regional councils in response to the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management. These land and water applications typically involve teams working collaboratively together, and with stakeholders and affected communities, to develop ways of managing limits to freshwater extraction and pollution. Another example is the Health in All Policies team at the Canterbury District Health Board, who are active in a structured approach across sectors to ensure health outcomes are considered in the development of public policies, plans and strategies.
Other examples show the potential for broader and more active application of SEA. These include speakers addressing the application of SEA to the complex tourism sector, where it is necessary to combine public and private sector management, and deliver environmental services as well as transport and hospitality, while ensuring visitors have a good experience and are not degrading the product. Another example is the Predator Free NZ strategic initiative to dramatically reduce if not entirely eradicate NZ’s introduced mammalian predator populations, particularly rats, stoats and possums. The initiative will include many specific projects and partners including government agencies, CRIs, Universities, NGOs and community groups, and a mix of solutions face social and environmental constraints, including covering human health, animal welfare, livelihoods, cultural and moral issues. The World Bank’s REDD programme to protect and enhance forestry, other land uses and coastal systems in the Pacific Islands is another example of a programme application of SEA, to assess social and environmental implications of REDD implementation and establish systems for monitoring and managing impacts for maximum beneficial outcomes.
How effective is SEA in Oceania and where do we go next with our practice? Is there a clear understanding of the part SEA can play in environmental management? Is SEA supporting better planning and decision making in this country? What can we do to enhance practice? Our conference sessions are programmed to provide discussion time, when topics are opened up for all attendees to discuss and to share their experiences and suggestions. In addition, a full session on day 2 is given over to the discussion of topics suggested by attendees, for example, to explore future opportunities for using SEA in particular sectors.
NZAIA invites the diverse impact assessment community in central regional and local government, universities, iwi, consultancies, the private sector and NGOs to attend. Graduate students and early-career professionals are particularly welcome. There is provision for any attendee to submit a poster paper.
[1] Tetlow, M. and Hanusch, M (2012). Strategic environmental assessment: the state of the art. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 30,1:15-24.
Why did we select SEA as the conference theme? SEA is regarded internationally as the primary way by which impact assessment concepts and tools are applied to the development and implementation of policies, plans and programmes. In New Zealand, policies and plans help us deal with strategic issues under the Resource Management Act. There is also guidance under other legislation such as the Local Government Act and Conservation Act, for example.
Internationally, SEA is used extensively to address the big issues, such as climate change, sea-level rise, regional-scale land use changes such as urban growth and renewal, agricultural intensification, and the development of infrastructure systems such as transport planning, or water distribution. The objectives of applying SEA are typically to enhance the resilience of ecological, economic and social systems, and increase the sustainability of our environment. The methods of SEA derive very closely from those applied in project impact assessment.[1] This is also the case in New Zealand, for instance in developing district and regional plans and plan changes, urban growth plans, or land and water management plans for our catchments.
Some tools are available here (e.g. section 32 analysis of policies and plans) but are they enough for the challenges we face? Often the analysis in these tools is narrowly specific, considering cost and benefits through an economic lens, for instance, rather than a wider, integrated consideration of all outcomes: ecological, social, health, cultural and economic.
Anticipating and managing the impacts of development and change on the environment, society and the economy is essential at the strategic level as well as for projects. Our conference will consider how well strategic environmental assessment is used in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific. How does experience here compare to international experience and what are the challenges that need addressing? In a final roundtable session we expect to develop some strategies that NZAIA, and its associated organisations such as the EIANZ, can apply to improve practice.
We have many great speakers, including the keynote speaker Dr Jenny Pope from Perth, speakers from the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), and our own convenor Prof Richard Morgan, who are familiar with the development and application of SEA internationally and will address the efficacy of SEA in our oceanic region. How has SEA developed over time, to what purpose, with what tools and facing what problems in enhancing performance by impact assessment professionals? Do we have practitioners with the necessary methods and skills in SEA, and the ability to apply them?
Examples and case studies that we are addressing at the conference will provide plenty of opportunities to explore with participants how SEA is being used in New Zealand. These include planning for natural hazards and adverse events, land-use change and urbanisation, catchment planning, conservation and biodiversity management, tourism and iwi plans. We will also explore how affected people and communities are brought into the process of planning through collaborative and similar techniques.
The topics that speakers are addressing provide plenty of opportunities to address the wide ranging application of SEA in this country – often these applications are undertaken by interdisciplinary teams, or those with interdisciplinary skills, who are not necessarily utilising SEA frameworks per se, or distinguishing their work as SEA, but they are in fact undertaking SEA. An example is SEA actively applied at present by regional councils in response to the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management. These land and water applications typically involve teams working collaboratively together, and with stakeholders and affected communities, to develop ways of managing limits to freshwater extraction and pollution. Another example is the Health in All Policies team at the Canterbury District Health Board, who are active in a structured approach across sectors to ensure health outcomes are considered in the development of public policies, plans and strategies.
Other examples show the potential for broader and more active application of SEA. These include speakers addressing the application of SEA to the complex tourism sector, where it is necessary to combine public and private sector management, and deliver environmental services as well as transport and hospitality, while ensuring visitors have a good experience and are not degrading the product. Another example is the Predator Free NZ strategic initiative to dramatically reduce if not entirely eradicate NZ’s introduced mammalian predator populations, particularly rats, stoats and possums. The initiative will include many specific projects and partners including government agencies, CRIs, Universities, NGOs and community groups, and a mix of solutions face social and environmental constraints, including covering human health, animal welfare, livelihoods, cultural and moral issues. The World Bank’s REDD programme to protect and enhance forestry, other land uses and coastal systems in the Pacific Islands is another example of a programme application of SEA, to assess social and environmental implications of REDD implementation and establish systems for monitoring and managing impacts for maximum beneficial outcomes.
How effective is SEA in Oceania and where do we go next with our practice? Is there a clear understanding of the part SEA can play in environmental management? Is SEA supporting better planning and decision making in this country? What can we do to enhance practice? Our conference sessions are programmed to provide discussion time, when topics are opened up for all attendees to discuss and to share their experiences and suggestions. In addition, a full session on day 2 is given over to the discussion of topics suggested by attendees, for example, to explore future opportunities for using SEA in particular sectors.
NZAIA invites the diverse impact assessment community in central regional and local government, universities, iwi, consultancies, the private sector and NGOs to attend. Graduate students and early-career professionals are particularly welcome. There is provision for any attendee to submit a poster paper.
[1] Tetlow, M. and Hanusch, M (2012). Strategic environmental assessment: the state of the art. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 30,1:15-24.