The Changing Perception of Soil Erosion in New Zealand

Abstract

soil-conservation movement in New Zealand, in which a number of scientists played prominent roles. This movement culminated in soil-conservation legislation in 1941. A strong reaction from the agricultural community followed, and farmers sought to discount the problem of soil erosion. Gradually, opposition gave way to acceptance of soil conservation measures. As acceptance spread amongst farmers, government scientists began to question the beliefs on which soil-conservation policy was based. SINCE THE DAYS of Homer and Plato, soil erosion has been one of the most widely recognized symptoms of disharmony between man and his environment. The literature is replete with accounts of soil erosion accelerated by the hand of man in almost every part of the world where agriculture and pastoralism have been practised. Perhaps in no other field are well established differences between scientific or technical personnel and land managers in the perception of the hazard more evident. In many lands, the former have viewed with alarm the results of what they perceive to be accelerated soil erosion, while the latter frequently discount the significance of the process even if they accept that there may be a relationship between their land occupation and management and the rate of soil erosion. Changing perception of a natural hazard or process of resource degradation is less commonly documented, especially if it represents change on the part of scientific or technical experts. The case of soil erosion in New Zealand seems to constitute such an instance, and is interesting from several viewpoints. Its perception by scientific personnel has clearly changed over time, less in accordance, it seems, with real variations in objectively measured rates of erosion than with the changing publicity afforded to soil erosion in other countries. The effectiveness with which the scientific view has been propounded and accepted has varied similarly. After soil erosion had been suggested to be a threat to the national economy, the unanimity of the scientific view led to the enactment of soil-conservation legislation, yet only a few years later a bitter backlash sought to deny both the significance of the process and the credibility of the threat. The purpose of this paper is threefold: to outline the changing scientific perception of soil erosion in New Zealand during the last hundred years; to consider the setting in which scientific concern led to the enactment of legislation; and to review the significance of this changing perception.