New Zealand's resource management system and its effectiveness

Abstract

The importance of a resource and forest management system integrated with land use management is widely recognized in the world. New Zealand (NZ) was the country took the lead to establish the integrated resource management system by dividing the role of natural forests and plantation forests clearly and by establishing the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). This review aims to introduce NZ's forest management system, their developing processes and the effectiveness or problems of the system. Comparison to Japan's forest management system was also stated.The dichotomous management system, which manages indigenous forest for environmental conservation and plantation forest for timber production, allowed the indigenous forests to be free from harvesting. New Zealand was able to conduct this system because of (1) the small area of indigenous forest remaining on the hill countries, (2) the development of plantation forestry to a promising industry and (3) the pressure of rationalization and the conservation movement. The dichotomous forest management system itself is not likely to apply for Japan because of the difference of forest distribution pattern and the profitability of forestry. Nonetheless, the process for clarifying the role of administration bodies and the legislation related to forests might be able to introduce because forest legislations and their administration bodies are still fragmented in Japan.The establishment of the RMA accompanied by the central government reform, local government reform, and the integration of environmental legislations. These processes enabled the RMA to provide the platform to implement integrated resource management. Although some problems are still remaining, the RMA is an advanced comprehensive environmental law that put every effort to minimize contradiction among legislations and conflicts among the administration bodies. In order to establish an integrated resource or forest management system in Japan, reviewing processes of the administration system and legislations as conducted in NZ might be important.