Iwi and environmental management
Incorporating iwi issues and concerns in council plans and policies from the outset is a much better approach to
environmental management than having iwi reacting continually to individual consent applications or environmental
problems on a case by case basis, Environment Minister Marian Hobbs said today.
"The Resource Management Act provides for this and the government is encouraging the development of iwi environmental
management plans to allow for proactive participation of iwi in resource and environmental management," Marian Hobbs
said.
"Through the Ministry for the Environment's Sustainable Management Fund, a toolkit 'Te Raranga A Mahi', is available to
assist whanau, hapu and iwi to develop environmental management plans.
"An example of this proactive iwi approach is Ngai Tahu's Freshwater Policy which describes the runanga's association
with freshwater resources, the ways it wants to participate in freshwater management and the environmental outcomes
sought.
"National's environment spokesman Nick Smith in his campaign to denigrate the RMA and its democractic processes ignores
his party's abysmal record in environmental management. Under National the Environment Court was chronically underfunded
leading to a huge backlog of cases.
"The Labour led government has doubled the Environment Court's budget to $4 million a year to clean up National's mess
and the court is operating far more efficiently now. By reducing delays, you remove a weapon some objectors use."