Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
and the relative nature of resilience would prevent us from identifying
de
nitive points at which we could say that a desired level of ecosystem
health has been reached. Rather, it would establish enhancing the resilience
of ecosystems and reducing the stresses we place on them as ideals to be
observed in the conduct of decision-making. This approach can be com-
pared with the use of
in some legal contexts as an ideal of
how development should be conducted rather than as an endpoint towards
which it is desired that natural systems should evolve.
57
However, the
wording I propose differs from typical uses of
'
sustainability
'
in making
it clear that ecological values should be prioritised over economic and
social goods in determining policy contents.
'
sustainability
'
,savewhere
environmental limits on the pursuit of economic and social goals are
made clear in its de
'
Sustainability
'
nition, does not provide an effective guide for
improved environmental protection because it presents no vision of
the environmental conditions that are desired.
58
3.3.2 Principles for ecological policy-making
As experience with New Zealand
'
s Resource Management Act indicates,
a statutory de
cient to
ensure that ecological protection will be advanced.
59
Observance of the
Act
nition of expected outcomes is not itself suf
'
s requirement that ecological limits should be respected in resource
management was hampered by the lack of explanation in the legislation
of how it should be applied and of following guidance on how the Act
should be implemented.
60
In contrast, the objective I propose is sup-
ported by principles that give guidance on how the policy process should
be conducted and for the evaluation of policy options. These principles
are discussed in the following sections.
3.3.2.1 Reducing consumption
An effective means of alleviating ecological stress would be the signi
-
cant reduction of existing levels of consumption, and particularly where
these drive the use of resources and the conduct of activities that present
57
A. Bagheri and P. Hjorth,
Planning for Sustainable Development: A Paradigm Shift
Towards a Process-based Approach
'
(2007) 15 Sustainable Development, 84.
58
A. Ross, Sustainable Development Law in the UK: From Rhetoric to Reality? (Abingdon:
Earthscan, 2012), p. 292, 299
'
-
301; K. Bosselmann,
'
From Reductionist Environmental
Law to Sustainability Law
in P. Burdon (ed.) Exploring Wild Law: The Philosophy of
Earth Jurisprudence (Kent Town: The Wake
eld Press, 2011), pp. 204
'
-
13.
59
Connor and Dovers,
60
'
Sustainable Management
'
, pp. 108
-
9.
Ibid
.
