2.1 The Department's operating environment
2.1.1 The Government's priorities
2.1.2 The wider context
The Government has set three overall themes for its investment in the public service: economic transformation, families - young and old, and national identity.
Economic transformation: Working to progress our economic transformation to a high income, knowledge-based market economy, which is both innovative and creative, and provides a unique quality of life to all New Zealanders.
The Department contributes to this theme through conserving ecosystems such as forests, tussock lands and wetlands to provide the clean water, predictable river flows, healthy estuaries and coastal environments, and the stable hill slopes on which a successful economy relies. Conservation is the foundation of New Zealand's international 'clean and green' brand, and provides many of the iconic places and experiences on which the country's tourism industry is based.
Families - young and old: All families, young and old, have the support and choices they need to be secure and be able to reach their full potential within our knowledge based economy.
The Department contributes to this theme through its management of a world-class system of national parks, reserves, walkways, marine reserves, camping grounds and other publicly accessible natural areas. These places provide a range of opportunities to support the physical, spiritual, mental and cultural health of families.
National identity: All New Zealanders to be able to take pride in who and what we are, through our arts, culture, film, sports and music, our appreciation of our natural environment, our understanding of our history and our stance on international issues.
The Department contributes to this theme through conserving, managing and providing access to the natural, historic and cultural heritage that is a core element of national identity, through working with tangata whenua and communities, through international conservation advocacy, and by being recognised as a world leader in conservation techniques, and sharing that knowledge with other countries.
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Underpinning its three overall themes, the Government recognises that New Zealand's future prosperity depends on long-term sustainable strategies for the economy, society, environment, culture and the New Zealand way of life. The Department's contributions to the following initiatives from the Government's sustainability package reflect its commitment to modelling sustainable business practices and contributing to the sustainable future of New Zealand.
The Department is one of the lead group of six agencies putting in place a carbon neutral plan by 2008, and will become carbon neutral by the end of 2012. The Department has measured its carbon footprint, and is in the process of developing an emissions reduction plan that will ensure the 2012 carbon neutral goal is met. The Department is contributing further to the carbon neutral public service through working with the Ministry for the Environment to identify sites on public conservation land that can be used to provide carbon offset opportunities for the six agencies.
The Department manages a significant proportion of New Zealand's existing carbon stock. It is also exploring opportunities to form agreements that enable businesses to offset carbon emissions, generate income from carbon credits, invest money in conservation projects, and create marketing opportunities around biodiversity improvements. Twenty sites have been compiled into three forest carbon sink projects that are compliant with the Kyoto Protocol. These have been tendered to the private sector for investments that will earn Kyoto carbon credits. A further three pest control projects have been tendered, offering investors the opportunity to earn 'voluntary market' credits, rather than Kyoto carbon credits.
The Department is one of 47 government agencies that signed up to the Govt3 Programme in 2005. Sustainable practice measures to date include moving the Department's head office into a five-star 'green building', tendering for more fuel efficient, lower emission vehicles, and increasing the use of teleconferences and webcam technology to reduce air travel.
The Ministry of Economic Development is developing a single procurement policy for government, requiring sustainably produced goods and services to be used whenever possible. The Department has begun the transition to sustainable procurement.
In its contributions to the Government's sustainability package, the Department works primarily with the Ministry for the Environment, the Ministry of Economic Development and the business sector.
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Other Government policies and systems that set the Department's operating environment include the following:
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, through Biosecurity New Zealand, has accountability for end-to-end management of biosecurity. The Department provides the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry with policy, science and technical advice regarding risks to indigenous flora and fauna. Where appropriate (as a partner in whole of government biosecurity), the Department provides operational support to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and other agencies during biosecurity incursions to facilitate better biosecurity outcomes.
The New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy (NZBS) was launched in 2000 to give effect to New Zealand's obligations under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. The Department is one of a number of government departments engaged in implementing the strategy. Following the review of the first five years of the strategy, the following key areas have been identified for cross-departmental attention:
- preparing for the impact of climate change on land and sea species and ecosystems
- protecting terrestrial biodiversity in rare and threatened ecosystems, particularly on private land
- identifying and protecting the highest value freshwater ecosystems, and ensuring that land use is sympathetic to freshwater biodiversity
- implementing the Marine Protected Areas Policy around New Zealand's coast, and ensuring land use and other activities such as fishing do not degrade the marine environment
- improving leadership, partnerships and engagement with Māori, communities and local government to get better co-ordination of biodiversity work
- improving monitoring and reporting against New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy outcomes.
These priorities guide the Department's natural heritage work, including work in collaboration with other agencies.
The Department also has a key role in administering contestable biodiversity funds established by Government to help achieve the goals of the New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy, as discussed in section 3.2 in relation to intermediate outcome 3.
In its contributions to the Biodiversity Strategy, the Department works primarily with the Ministry for the Environment, the Ministry of Fisheries, the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology, the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Te Puni Kokiri, the Department of Internal Affairs, and the Treasury. Working with tangata whenua, landowners, regional and local government, recreation, outdoor and conservation organisations, and businesses is an increasing aspect of biodiversity protection.
Redress involving public conservation lands is increasingly becoming an important part of all Treaty of Waitangi settlement negotiations. The Department has a responsibility to ensure that the Crown's interests, such as preservation of public access and continued protection of species and habitats, are recognised and provided for in each Crown/iwi settlement. This must be achieved in the context of providing iwi with appropriate redress that recognises their cultural and historical associations with public conservation lands. The Office of Treaty Settlements is the lead agency for Treaty negotiations. However, the Department is an important contributor, and is represented on each Crown negotiating team. The Department also contributes to Crown/iwi foreshore and seabed settlement negotiations.
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The opportunities and challenges influencing the current and future context within which the Department operates are summarised below, under four headings: environmental, economic, social and governmental.
Opportunities:
- The global focus on climate change, declining biodiversity, and sustainability is reflected in strong government and public agendas for preserving New Zealand's biodiversity and promoting a sustainable future.
Challenges:
- New Zealand's native flora and fauna continues to decline.
- Climate change will adversely impact native flora and fauna, as well as marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
Opportunities:
- Strong and growing interest in both the 'clean and green' brand and in carbon off sets provides significant marketing opportunities for conservation, and the platform on which to build arrangements that benefit both business and conservation.
Challenges:
- Growing trade and tourism increases biosecurity risks, and increases pressures on the environment and on conservation facilities.
- Increasing and sometimes competing demands for use of natural resources, in particular freshwater and coastal space, are exacerbating pressures on natural resources in some places.
- The ability of ecosystems to continue to deliver the natural capital on which New Zealand's prosperity depends (adequate water flow, soil quality maintenance, and erosion and flood control) is being placed under increasing pressure by climate change and associated adverse weather events.
Opportunities:
- Increasing public interest in conservation provides expanding opportunities for the Department to work with others in the cause of conservation.
- Treaty of Waitangi settlements will increase opportunities for partnerships between the Department and tangata whenua.
Challenges:
- New Zealand's demographic forecasts indicate challenges and opportunities, both for staff recruitment and retention and for the ways the Department interacts with New Zealanders. Key changes predicted over the next 50 years include:
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- an aging population
- a more diverse ethnic mix and range of cultural values
- an increasing urban population density relative to rural
- a workforce that demands flexibility to meet lifestyle choices
- a younger and more mobile global workforce.
Opportunities:
- The 'whole of government' approach presents an opportunity for government agencies to work together to achieve better results for New Zealanders.
Challenges:
- The size of the conservation job, particularly as society seeks increasing outcomes, will require the Department to access and mobilize additional resources, and prioritise effort so as to work more effectively with what it has.
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