Marine principles
Governance
- Protection of marine biodiversity and marine ecosystems and marine landforms unique to New Zealand is a national and international responsibility.
- The marine environment will be governed for the benefit of all New Zealanders.
- The marine environment is viewed as a taonga - there for everybody and upon which we rely, rather than as a resource base on which to create property rights.
- Any allocation of rights to use marine resources will be based on robust and appropriate, environmental research.
- Decision-making will be informed by traditional knowledge of tangata whenua along with new sources of information and research.
- Where there is insufficient information, the precautionary principle will apply.
Preservation and protection
Sea cliffs at Rakitu Island viewed
from below the surface
- Priority for protection will be afforded to our unique indigenous flora and fauna.
- Responsibilities to future generations requires that non-extractive values of the marine environment - intrinsic values, wildness values, spiritual values, ecosystem services - are protected.1
- A spectrum of protection mechanisms will be employed to enable communities to be involved in the protection and preservation as well as the rehabilitation and use of marine ecosystems (e.g. taiapure, mahinga mataitai, reserves).
- Representative, rare, and special marine ecosystems will be preserved in perpetuity as "no take"2 areas within the limit of the EEZ.
Sustainable use
- The marine environment will be sustainably managed in a way that maintains its potential for future generations.
- The marine and terrestrial environments will be managed in an integrated way that recognises the complex inter-relationships of land, sea and atmosphere.
- Rights to use the marine environment should be exercised in an ecologically sustainable manner.
- Where finite resources are being used e.g. mining of finite resources, this is to be carried out in a manner that mitigates the adverse impacts of the activity on the marine environment.
1 Ecosystem services are the natural resources which underpin sustainability. These substantially add to the quality of life. Up till now no economic value has been put on them - i.e. natural resources such as clean water and air, or the ocean as a means of transport and waste disposal have been taken for granted. New economic models are being developed to put a dollar value on these services.
2 By "no take" the Authority means nothing to be taken in the column from sea surface to seabed.
back to top