% background 1000 % - EIA & SEA 400 % - sustainable development 200 % - RMA 400 \section{Background} \subsection{Environmental Impact Assessment} The term ``Environmental Impact Assessment'' (EIA) is used to refer to a set of standardised procedures that are designed to inform the decision-making processes surrounding development proposals. According to the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA), a major objective of EIA is to ``anticipate and avoid, minimize or offset the adverse significant biophysical, social and other relevant effects'' of such proposals ``prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made'' \parencite{principles}. In order to provide decision-makers with sufficiently detailed insight into the potential positive and negative effects of a project on the environment, the participation of all parties that would be affected by the project, as well as the participation of the general public is explicitly encouraged \parencite{principles}. The involvement of the public in the decision-finding process is a crucial component of EIA as those responsible for the project proposal and the prediction of its impacts on the social and natural environment do not necessarily share the values of affected communities. Hence, public participation can provide balance to the biases of developers and the assessors they hire \parencite{wilkins}. \subsubsection{EIA activities and procedures} The EIA process generally involves the following activities \parencite{principles}: \begin{enumerate} \item[\emph{Screening and scoping.}] The goal of the \emph{screening} step is to limit the application of EIA procedures to those projects that are expected to have significant effects on the environment. What kind of projects require an impact assessment varies from country to country. When a proposal is subject to EIA, the \emph{scope} of the assessment is determined by identifying the key impacts that are associated with the project. \item[\emph{Consideration of alternatives.}] Since EIA is mainly intended to be a tool to assist decision-making, practicable alternatives must be presented for every proposed activity, including the option not to do anything. This step ensures that EIA does not turn into an expensive documentation exercise for planners and decision-makers; it is essential for effective EIA. \item[\emph{Impact analysis, mitigation, and evaluation of residual impacts.}] Identifying and analysing impacts as well as proposing actions to mitigate them are major steps in preparing environmental impact statements. These steps are usually performed by the proponents. How to fairly establish the significance of residual impacts (i.e. impacts that cannot be mitigated effectively but are also considered to be minor) is frequently subject of debates. According to \textcite{wood}, ``significance evaluation \ldots{} remains one of the most complex, contentious, and least-understood aspects of EIA systems across the globe''. \item[\emph{Reporting, independent review and decision-making.}] A final EIA report is required to contain sufficient information to allow for well-informed decisions about the proposed activity. An independent review ensures that the report is of sufficiently high quality. \item[\emph{Monitoring and other follow-up activities.}] It lies in the nature of EIA that predictions about potential impacts are fraught with inaccuracies. To improve the often inadequate knowledge about the state of the environment and the actual impacts of human activities on it, the implementation of many projects subject to EIA should be followed by monitoring efforts. Feeding back into the process as it applies to future projects, monitoring ideally enables decision-makers and assessors alike to produce higher quality assessments and approach the ideal of sustainable development. \end{enumerate} \subsection{The Resource Management Act 1991} The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) is the overarching environmental management framework which governs the allocation and utilisation of New Zealand's natural resources and controls adverse effects on the environment. The RMA is the result of efforts to unify and simplify previous legislation relating to environmental management which had lead to what was perceived as an uncoordinated, complex network of confusing environmental management strategies \parencite{twp98}. It consolidated around 70 laws and statutes and is generally considered to be the first piece of integrated sustainability legislation in the world \parencite{rma-guide}. \subsubsection{The role of sustainable development} In recognition of the inherent limitations of project-level EIA---including the difficulty of assessing cumulative impacts, the lack of integrated assessment of effects at a wider scope, and the narrow focus on direct impacts of assessed proposals---the RMA does not institutionalise the standard EIA process but provides for an integrated approach to ``the sustainable management of natural and physical resources'' (Section 5). In line with this purpose, the RMA adopts a very broad definition of the term `environment'---including communities, amenity values, social and cultural conditions (Section 2(1))---and its mandatory requirement for the assessment of `effects' applies to policies, plans and projects alike. In principle, the RMA is thus closer to an implementation of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) than to ``first generation'' EIA. The RMA has been described as an ``effects-based approach'' to regulation \parencite{sadler}, as it does not intend to regulate human activities per se, but ``focuses on the regulation of the effects of human activities on the environment'' \parencite{furuseth}. Notably, the RMA makes no reference to EIA or environmental assessment procedures. As \textcite{sadler} writes, environmental assessment under the RMA ``operates within the statutory planning and consent system rather than as a separate procedure, applies explicitly to projects and is indirectly specified for policy statements and strategic plans which local authorities are required to prepare to guide and implement sustainable resource management'' \parencite[p 31]{sadler}. \subsubsection{Decentralised environmental management} Interestingly and somewhat unusually in international comparison, the RMA shifts the main responsibility of resource management activities to local authorities rather than imposing a prescriptive management style. The role of central government under the RMA is purposefully limited, allowing district and city councils to let their decisions be guided by locally determined goals. This devolved mandate---the distribution of management responsibility from the national to the regional and finally local level---is intended to ensure that decisions relating to resource usage are made not only within the national policy framework but also at a level closest to the resources in question \parencite[p 27]{miller2010implementing}. Responsible for the national policy framework within which local authorities are encouraged to develop local plans and evaluate resource consent applications is the Ministry for the Environment\footnote{Since the RMA amendments of 2009, the newly founded Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) is increasingly taking over the regulatory functions of the Ministry for the Environment, which is now focusing on policy and regulation under environmental acts other than the RMA \parencite{miller2010implementing}.}. The Ministry is supposed to prepare and publish national policy statements---declaring governance intent relating to issues affecting the whole country or in fulfilment of international agreements---as well as national environmental standards (specific points of reference in the areas of air quality, water quality, etc.). According to \textcite{furuseth}, ``among local government units, the regional councils are presented with the greatest responsibilities and the most far reaching potential to implement sustainable management'' \parencite[p 262]{furuseth}. On the regional level, regional councils are to produce regional policy statements (RPS) and may also produce more comprehensive and prescriptive regional plans to support the goal of achieving integrated management of natural resources. Regional policy statements ``present an assessment of existing conditions and a direction for resource management in the region'' and are therefore at the core of the goal to achieving sustainable development which is implemented through decisions over resource consents \parencite{furuseth}. As \textcite{miller2010implementing} notes, the issues every regional council has to address in plans and policy statements are mostly related to the sustainable management of natural or physical resources. Planning at the district level is constrained by these regional plans and policies. The plans and policies at the national, regional, and district level provide a framework for regulation of development activities. Councils have created ``generous opportunities'' for public consultation during the initial consultation stage of the plan formation process by means of workshops and meetings \parencite{miller2010implementing}. Upon completion the plan is made available for comments from the public for a period of at least forty working days, which is followed by a hearing period and the opportunity to appeal to the Environment Court. \subsubsection{Resource consents} For every proposed activity that is not explicitly allowed as a `Permitted Activity' in the appropriate regional or district plan, resource consents have to be obtained from the local authorities before development may commence \parencite{fookes}. Every resource consent application, in turn, requires the proponent to produce an Assessment of Environmental Effects (AEE); this requirement is most readily recognisable as an implementation of EIA. The Fourth Schedule of the RMA is intended as a most basic guide to assist practitioners in preparing their AEE; beyond the requirements of the Fourth Schedule, however, there are few guidelines to assess the quality of an AEE \parencite{miller2010implementing}. After a review of the AEE, the council that received the resource consent application may decide to involve the public by means of public notification or determine that public notification is not required when the activity is expected to only have minor effects and all affected parties agree on the proposal \parencite{fookes}. When an application is publicly notified, the application is to be reviewed under consideration of public submissions and the results of public hearings. Participants in the public submission and hearing steps may also appeal to the Environment Court. EIA in New Zealand under the RMA can thus be said to happen on two levels: first, during the development of regional and district plans which are a consultation-heavy implementation of the screening and scoping steps of standard EIA; and second, in the process surrounding resource consents, involving the actual assessment of potential impacts, an independent review, and public participation.