Take Maori-Govt rivers dispute to new international body

Take Maori-Government rivers dispute to new international body, expert

Mike Smith

A Brazilian expert in valuing environmental goods and services says a new international agreement signed up to by the New Zealand Government is ideal for solving the dispute with Maori over the sale of hydro power stations.

New Zealand was one of more than 90 countries which met in Panama in April this year to establish the Intergovernmental Science and Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPBES). The IPBES, which will have its headquarters in Bonn , Germany , is described as “the ultimate forum at global level” and is responsible for organising and supplying information regarding biodiversity and ecosystem services, and providing a mechanism of support for decision-making on issues involved in the area.

Eder Zanetti, who is a Fullbright Scholar and is a Forest Engineer with a Phd in Sustainable Forest Management, recently co-authored an article in the latest edition of the Southern Hemisphere Forest Industry Journal entitled “Platform for Business with Ecosystem and Environmental Goods and Services: A Brazilian Proposal for Green Economy Practice”.

Interviewed following the article’s publication, Dr Zanetti said the tools existed to help resolve the dispute between Maori and the Government over the sale of hydro electric resources.

“I think this is a perfect case of where we have a green infrastructure that is being valued and this concept could be very useful to this situation. I think we could have a value over there [in New Zealand ] that could make everybody happy in the end.”

Much work would have to be done on measuring the ecosystem services around the rivers and waterways. The tools already existed to do this work and the values involvede just had to be recognised and validated.

The government has maintained nobody actually owns the rivers flowing through the hydro station, while Maori have claimed Treaty of Waitangi rights.

Dr Zanetti said there were certain cases where things should be left as they are, if the cultural value was sufficiently high enough.

“But I think they should be analysed on a scientific basis – that helps everybody.”

Asked whether the dispute could go to the IPBES for a resolution, Dr Zanetti said “absolutely – this is its main function.

“It allows governments and people to put that traditional knowledge they have about the environment to make this also something that can be used to generate income.”

It was envisaged that income could be generated by way of, for example, royalties over time along the lines of those established with carbon credits.

New Zealand was among the countries attending the meeting in Panama to finalise the establishment of the IPBES, which also voted for Bonn to become the headquarters. Other countries involved include Australia , the United States , Chile , Brazil , the UK and other major players in Europe .

The German city of Bonn , which hosts such treaties as the UN Environment Programme's (UNEP) Convention on Migratory Species, won the bid to host the secretariat of the new independent body at a meeting held in Panama City .

IPBES aims to tackle head-on the accelerating worldwide loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystem service by bridging the gap between accurate, impartial and up to date science and policy-makers, a UNEP statement said.

Although many organizations and initiatives contribute to improving the dialogue between policy-makers and the scientific community in this field, IPBES is established as a new platform, recognized by both the scientific and policy communities to address the existing gaps and strengthen the science-policy interface on biodiversity and ecosystem services, the statement said.

UNEP has been requested to continue to facilitate the platform on an interim basis, in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).One or more of these UN bodies will administer the IPBES Secretariat, once it is finally established.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said, "Years of often complex debate and political negotiations have today reached a positive conclusion and a milestone in terms of humanity's future response to reversing biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystems from forests to freshwaters."

For more details, go to:
http://www.southem.com/2012/06/southern-hemisphere-forest-industry-journal-vol-18-no-1/

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