Will the NZCPS adequately protect the coast?

Abstract

To the question 'Will the new NZCPS adequately protect the coast?' the answer is clearly 'no'. The 'no' lies conceptually in the simple fact that protecting the coast is not the purpose of the NZCPS, nor can the NZCPS achieve it by itself. More pragmatically, there are considerable constraints to its implementation regardless of its content. Experience and reviews indicate that the new NZCPS should be prescriptive. Even if the NZCPS is quite prescriptive, however, there are real doubts about its ability to result in adequate protection, whatever that might be. It will result in improved protection, but the inertia of development will not be matched by counterbalancing protection in the current context of tightening budgets and RMA decision-making systems. It is unlikely to be rapid in its practical implementation. The human and other capital resources are insufficient. The proposed reforms of the RMA may well further undermine the original integrated effects-based approach. In the absence of strategic national planning and implementation capacity the introduction of a portfolio approach is unlikely to be successful. The new NZCPS may well provide an adequate framework for protection of the coast, but it will not be well-implemented and adequate protection is not its purpose under the RMA.