Changing Freshwater Management in New Zealand

Abstract

Freshwater management policy in New Zealand is currently undergoing major upheaval. It is abundantly clear that the existing policy failed its stated goal, to protect freshwaters for future generations. Therefore, this is a crucial time to look back and see where policy failed so we can avoid repeating the same mistakes. The implementation failures included setting inadequate objectives, failing to monitor outcomes, and failing to adequately enforce even those compromised objectives. Furthermore, there were policy shortcomings, revealed by an almost total failure to deal with the diffuse nature of the biggest environmental impacts.