National (Canada) Guide to Sustainable Municipal Infrastructure
This document is the second in a series of best practices that focus on the interaction of natural systems and their effects on human quality of life in relation to municipal infrastructure delivery. For titles of other best practices in this and other series, please refer to www.infraguide.ca
Blue Flag is an internationally-recognised, voluntary, environmental award presented to communities that reach the appropriate level of environmental management and education in respect of their beaches and marinas.
"An essential tool for people, dedicated to sustainable land management and ready to revitalise native bush to maintain its unique biodiversity."
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. What can New Zealand learn from overseas experience about the management of icon landscapes in peri-urban areas? Three locations were chosen to examine land use planning in the context of sustainable development: the Oak Ridges Moraine in Ontario, Canada; the Cape Peninsula in South Africa; and the Peak District in the United Kingdom.
By Roger Blakeley, Chief Executive, Porirua City Council
“Communities for Climate Protection - New Zealand” is part of an international
programme to help councils take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is
based on the achievement of five programme milestones:
- Prepare base-line greenhouse gas emission inventories and forecasts for key
sources of greenhouse gas emissions such as council and community energy
use, transportation, industry, buildings and waste management, etc; - Establish local greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets;
- Prepare and adopt Local Climate Action Plans, specifying the measures to be
taken to achieve targets; - Implement the Local Climate Action Plans; and
- Periodically monitor and report on all major sources of greenhouse gas
emissions and milestone implementation.
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. The strengths and weaknesses of community planning in dealing with complex environmental issues can be seen in this case study of the Coromandel town of Whangamata.
Produced by Futures Thinking Aotearoa (2008) - This document has been produced by Futures Thinking Aotearoa (the NZ Futures Trust) to help communities identify important issues when preparing their plans for the future.
Environment Southland
Compiled by Futures Thinking Aotearoa - Futures Thinking Aotearoa has been refining a process for communities to use to develop a robust Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP) for their region. The aim is to create a resource to assist communities and local bodies in this task.
Provides a forum for communication between professionals in the social and natural sciences who share a common interest in promoting behaviors that will positively impact the environment. The newsletter is multidisciplinary in nature, emphasizing theoretically-informed, evidence-based approaches to behavioral change. This newsletter is created by faculty from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension.
Outlines the key environmental issues in New Zealand and the work that the Ministry for the Environment has under way to address them – often in conjunction with other government agencies or local government.
The EVRI is a searchable storehouse of empirical studies on the economic value of environmental benefits and human health effects. It has been developed as a tool to help policy analysts use the benefits transfer approach.
Ministry for the Environment: A series of guides about everyday matters under the RMA.
Hurunui District Council has developed an innovative way of communicating with ratepayers about the Draft Annual Plan making it easier for communities to understand so improving consultation and the Annual Plan itself.
Green Globe is the worldwide benchmarking and certification program for the travel and tourism industry.
Making the best of iwi management plans: Ministry for the Environment
Parliamentary Commissiner for the Environment. Many of the noise and air pollution problems faced by residents who live alongside Hawke's Bay's main arterial route can be traced to past planning failures. This report has 14 recommendations to deal with the problems.
Yves Bourassa, Policy Manager, Environment Canada (PowerPoint Presentation)
Power Point presentation at the New Zealand Ecological Society Conference 28 August 2006. Ranks New Zealand's cities in terms of how much nature they support, and considers what the perfect city would be from an ecologists perspective.
The Cities for Climate ProtectionTM (CCP) Campaign assists cities to adopt policies and implement quantifiable measures to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and enhance urban livability and sustainability.
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment: A number of local authorities in New Zealand are seeking to implement Local Agenda 21 and advance sustainable development. This report discusses the implementation of Local Agenda 21 in the United Kingdom and raises a number of issues for New Zealand with regards to the implementation of Agenda 21.
The Local Government Environmental Assistance Network (LGEAN) is a "first-stop shop" providing environmental management, planning, funding, and regulatory information for local government elected and appointed officials, managers and staff. International City/County Management Association (ICMA)
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. A joint study with the Auditor-General, which reviewed the functionality of the unitary authority model of local government, rather than the performance of individual councils. The report examined how unitary authority councils undertook their environmental management responsibilities compared with those of a selection of regional and territorial authorities.
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Examines the challenge of managing amenity values in New Zealand cities where population and housing densities are increasing. Looks at impacts on a range of values including streetscapes, natural and open spaces, city heritage, and traffic, and provides suggestions for improved management.
: The Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust has been established to lead a community project to restore the ecology of Maungatautari, a forested volcanic cone rising above the Waikato basin near Cambridge, New Zealand.
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Concerns from residents that erosion of foredunes may be caused by commercial sand extraction led to an investigation of compliance monitoring by the regional council. This report highlights issues concerning: royalties processes; difficulties in managing effects at mean high water; the complexity of coastal processes; and the uncertainty surrounding the sustainability of activities such as commercial sand extraction.
"Every New Zealander expects and deserves a clean, healthy environment – not just for ourselves, but to pass on to future generations. The Government wants to set standards, so that everyone in our country has clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and clean land to live on". (Ministry for the Environment)
A web-based system to record and process your natural history observations (birds, plants, butterflies, mushrooms, reptiles, frogs and mammals)
Climate change information New Zealand has information about New Zealand’s emissions, emissions trading, projected impacts, international negotiations and obligations and New Zealand’s overall approach to climate change.
Most of the Commissioner's Reports are available here.
This site is a gateway to information about the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), New Zealand's main piece of legislation that sets out how we should manage our environment. (Ministry for the Environment)
Every two years local authorities participate in a survey which examines key aspects of the Resource Management Act (RMA) process. The survey supplies core information about resource processes carried out under the RMA. The survey also provides a measure of comparative performance between local authorities. (Ministry for the Environment)
Author: Ministry for the Environment
Established in October 1992, the RMLA was formed to provide a forum for all professionals and others with an interest in resource management and the environment.
Summary of Responses to Mailing List enquiry by Chris Miles, Policy Analyst, New Plymouth District Council
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. A review of the progress of sustainable development in New Zealand, with particular reference to environmental management performance since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The report highlights the opportunities and challenges for the future in maintaining a healthy environment, social well-being and a strong economy.
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. A review of the environmental planning and management carried out to ensure the sustainable development of peri-urban areas in New Zealand. The report highlights the complexity and variety of approaches adopted and seriously questions the adequacy and effectiveness of these in achieving desirable environmental outcomes
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. This study revisited an earlier investigation on guidelines for local authority consultation with tangata whenua. The report reviews progress made on tangata whenua involvement in Resource Management Act (RMA) processes and identifies a number of areas for improvement, particularly in the areas of processes followed and relationships between iwi and councils.
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Tensions can run high when people differ over what is best for their local environment. This report looks at how communities can work through their differences and come up with outcomes that everyone has a stake in.
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. This reports the findings of a scoping study undertaken through 2001 and early 2002 into the concept of a Treaty based environmental audit framework. The Commissioner's study was not intended to actually develop an audit framework, but to evaluate the concept, its potential applications in environmental management, and the principles and processes by which such a framework could be developed.
Work programmes being undertaken by the Ministry for the Environment's Urban Group
An Information Resource for Urban Practitioners
Prepared by: Dave Sawyer, Gardner Pinfold Consulting Economists, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Edited by: Yves Bourassa, Environment Canada, National Capital Region
Prepared for: Andrew Justason, Eastern Charlotte Waterways Inc. New Brunswick Department of Environment
Revised: April 2001
(Gowlings Publications) "Facts: In 1992 Canadian Forest Products (Canfor) was responsible for a fire, damaging a large part of the Stone Creek area within the interior of British Columbia, where many tenure holders are licensed for logging. The Crown claimed damages for:
the costs associated with suppressing the fire and restoring the burned areas;
the loss of stumpage revenue for harvestable trees; and,
the loss of non-harvestable trees, which were protected for environmental reasons.
Trial and Appeal Decisions follow in this publication.
In this case the Court acknowledged the valuation of environmental attributes as evidence in resource disputes and that "these are factors that counsel and trial courts are likely to utilise in the future when seeking damages for environmental loss".
