Management of New Zealand's coastal environment

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Date: 27 May 2019
• Pages: 280-296
• Published date: 27 May 2019
• Author: André Rabie
• Citation: (1998) 9 Stell LR 280

MANAGEMENT OF NEW ZEALAND'S

COASTAL ENVIRONMENT

Andre Rabie*

BA LLD

Professor, University of Stellenbosch

1 New Zealand's coastal environment

New Zealand has an exceptionally long coastline, relative to its land

mass. Estimates of its length vary, but it is in excess of 15 000 km, the

seventh longest coastline in the world, while the Exclusive Economic

Zone — applicable since its declaration in 1978 — encompasses an area of

1,2 million square nautical miles, the fifth largest in the world. New

Zealand's coastal environment is extremely diverse and includes

numerous natural harbours, bays, estuaries, fiords, beaches, cliffs, sand

dunes, mangrove habitats and tidal wetlands. Substantial portions of the

coast have not yet been affected by development and remain pristine and

of magnificent splendour.

The coast provides an essential habitat for a rich and wide variety of

plants, birds, fish and other marine life, amongst which a significant

number of endangered species. From the earliest human settlements, the

coast has provided in people's needs of safe landing and settlement sites,

besides yielding abundant resources, especially fish, which is exploited by

both commercial and recreational sectors. It has also had a significant

cultural and spiritual effect, especially on the Maori and provides an

unparalleled recreational environment which contributes substantially to

the country's tourism potential.

With the development of the country, especially through urbanisation,

stress on the coastal environment has increased further, while other

individual developments have had a relatively small, but sometimes

cumulative impact. Reclamation, roadbuilding and subdivision of land

have modified the natural character of the coast. It is significant that

more than 80 per cent of the country's human population live within

3 km of the coast and that no town is further than 120 km from the coast.

Although

ad hoc

research has often been undertaken and certain bodies

have maintained their own individual records, there has been no specific

agency in New Zealand that collects and stores the wide variety of

information on the coastal environment which has been generated.

Consequently, one of the difficulties experienced with coastal manage-

ment has been the lack of comprehensive data in respect of the state of

the coastal environment. This was remarked upon by a board of inquiry,

* The financial assistance of the Centre for Science Development, HSRC, towards this research is

gratefully acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the author and

are not necessarily to be attributed to the CSD.

280

(1998) 9 Stell LR 280

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NEW ZEALAND'S COASTAL ENVIRONMENT



281

as recently as 1994.

1

The coast is larger, more complex, more diverse,

more dynamic and less well understood than any terrestrial environ-

ment.

2

In the first comprehensive survey of the state of New Zealand's

environment, concluded in 1997, it was found that the country's coastal

waters are generally of high quality, measured by international standards,

but are under stress in some areas, particularly near the larger estuarine

towns and cities; beyond the coastal zone, very little is known about the

status of the sea water environment.

3

The harbours, estuaries and coastal

waters receive the outflow of numerous rivers, besides stormwater runoff

and sewage from human settlements. Although coastal water monitoring

by regional councils is mostly confined to bathing and shellfish gathering

areas, the results, in general, indicate that New Zealand's coastal water

quality is high. However, nutrient enrichment of coastal areas from land-

based sources is likely to be significant. Estuaries are the coastal areas

that have been most affected by human activities, both along the coast

and in river catchments, but no recent general assessment of estuaries has

been undertaken. Assessments of individual urban locations indicate that

although there has been a steady fall in contamination from certain

pesticide residues, there has been a steady increase in concentration of

heavy metals and hydrocarbons. Waste disposal from boats constitutes a

problem in some areas, while oil spills are also a frequent problem, and

non-biodegradable litter is a widespread problem. The marine life of

harbours and estuaries is being affected by sediment which is washed

down from eroding land and from coastal erosion. It may therefore be

concluded that there are no pervasive, widespread impacts, although a

variety of human-induced pressures have localised impacts on New

Zealand's coastal environment.

A basic constraint in human management of the coastal environment is

the relatively poor knowledge and understanding of the dynamic

interaction of land and sea.

"Humans are terrestrial animals with land-based perspectives. They are unaccustomed to

thinking and living in harmony with a fluid marine environment or with the dynamic stability

and instability of the coast."

4

2 Definition of coastal environment

Experience has shown that there is no uniformly acknowledged

definition of the coastal environment or coastal zone. A major difficulty

is that a uniform definition is perceived as too inflexible, since the coastal

environment should, essentially, be determined "on a case-by-case basis,

Report and Recommendations of the Board of Inquiry into the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement

(1994) 106.

2

Coastal Legislation: Options for Law Reform

Resource Management Law Reform Working Paper

no 23 (1988) ii.

3

The State of New Zealand's Environment

1997 par 7 76.

4

Rennie

The Coastal Environment

in Memon & Perkins (ed)

Environmental Planning in New Zealand

(1993) 151.

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