Non-governmental organisation (NGO) participation in New Zealand's biodiversity strategy : towards an integrated approach to restoring the dawn chorus

Abstract

This report examines the participation process for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the development of New Zealand's Biodiversity Strategy. The process to develop New Zealand's Biodiversity Strategy includes fifteen central government agencies, and is overseen by the Department of Conservation and the Ministry for the Environment (under the management of the biodiversity strategy working group). A draft strategy is impending at the time that this report is released, and the principal purpose of the research is to recommend a participation process for NGOs that will strengthen the development of New Zealand's Biodiversity Strategy.

Two theoretical frameworks are used to guide the research process; the overarching theory of metapolicy; and the specific framework of Integrated Environmental Management. The NGO participation process is viewed within these as part of a complex policy process, the core features of which are systematically explored within the report. In this way the theories of and contextual setting for public participation in environmental policy, NGO participation in environmental policy, and biodiversity issues and management are discussed in a New Zealand context.

A programme of limited primary research is undertaken as part of the research programme and is described within the report. This entails a series of five focus group sessions in which NGO and Maori organisation representatives discuss four set questions as a group. A detailed summary of focus group proceedings is provided as an appendix to the report. Factors which constrain the overall process for developing New Zealand's Biodiversity Strategy and which specifically constrain NGO participation in developing the strategy are identified from the perspective of the biodiversity strategy working group.

The theoretical contributions, aspects of the contextual setting, results of the research and constraints outlined by the biodiversity strategy working group are then analysed to identify six key features for the case which have most influence on designing the participation process. These include: the need for institutional integration; the complex and centralised nature of the strategy development process; the Crowns partnership agreement under the Treaty of Waitangi and the need for integration of social and cultural values ('shared interpretation' and/or 'mutual understanding'); the technical nature of biodiversity issues and the need for broad initial education within the participation process; cynicism as a starting point for participation and conflict over biodiversity issues; and resource limitations and needs for the biodiversity strategy working group and NGOs respectively. Seventeen principles to guide the 'practitioner' and ten principles to guide the 'participant' in the participation process are discussed.

Three options for designing a participation process for NGO participation in New Zealand's Biodiversity Strategy are then outlined. These include (1) a national participation process, (2) a bioregional participation process, and (3) a bioregional partnership process. These options are assessed against eight criteria, and a bioregional participation process is recommended.