Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
health
industrial
recreation
natural heritage and fisheries
tourism
cultural values and mahinga kai.
3
people of New Zealand, to water resources.
4
Pressures on the freshwater resource are growing in some regions of New Zealand
faster than others. Some of this pressure is linked to a growing demand for energy, as
New Zealand has significant hydro-electricity generation. Abstractive uses of water
include irrigation, livestock consumption, household consumption and industrial use.
Agriculture is the largest abstractive user of freshwater and agricultural diffuse discharges
are having significant impacts on water quality (Ministry for the Environment 2004c).
These pressures on the water management framework are similar to the kinds of pressures
recognised as a barrier to the implementation of sustainable development policies by New
Zealand's Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (Parliamentary
Commissioner for the Environment 2002).
Resource Management Act 1991
The key environmental management legislation in New Zealand is the
Resource
Management Act 1991
(RMA). It provides the overall policy framework for the
sustainable management of New Zealand's natural and physical resources, including
water and discharges to water. It devolves primary responsibility for most environmental
issues to local government; regional councils are largely responsible for water
management.
3.
The customary gathering of food and natural materials and the places where those resources are
gathered.
4.
Freshwater has important cultural values.
Papatuanuku (Earth Mother) and the tears of Ranginui (Sky Father), and is an essential
ingredient of life both physically and spiritually. Water symbolises the spiritual link between the
past and the present, thereby giving mana or authority to people. It is considered to be a treasure
or taonga left by the ancestors for the life sustaining use of their descendants, who must guard
these taonga and hand them on in a good state. In the modern environment, traditional values
such as kaitiakitanga (stewardship) and the maintenance of the life-giving capacity of water,
encompass and intersect with other values for water (Ministry for the Environment 2004c).
Search WWH ::
Custom Search