2002 Awards Report
This years call for nominations was answered with five nominations all in the documentation category as follows:
Auckland Regional Council for its Proposed Air, Land, Water Plan.
Environment Waikato for its Clean Streams Programme.
Environment Waikato again for its Coromandel Beaches Coastal Hazard Control Programme.
New Zealand Centre for Environmental Law: Monograph Series Volume I: Environmental Law for Sustainable Society.
Wellington Regional Council for its Enforcement Procedures and Guidelines.
Each of the nominations had considerable merit with aspects of leading edge resource management practice. In the “highly commended” category were two documents, the Wellington Regional Council’s “Enforcement Procedures and Guidelines” and the NZCEL’s monograph.
The former document comprises precise guidelines at the “sharp end” of resource management where getting your facts right will usually mean the difference between success and failure. By following the guidelines the Council would be able to achieve consistency in both the type of breaches of the RMA that enforcement is taken against and in the manner in which the enforcement is carried out.
The NZCEL monograph comprises several thought provoking articles on the subject of sustainable development. We are lucky indeed to have such a learned group of people focussing their intellectual powers on this topic in an in-depth way. An added bonus was the 30 pages containing over 750 references on a wide range of resource management topics that is an essential resource for all undertaking research, article or even evidence writing.
The winner of the RMLA Award for 2002 was Environment Waikato for its Clean Streams Programme and associated documentation. This is not the only such programme being run by a regional council, nor is it the first attempt by Environment Waikato to introduce an environmental management programme which addresses the critical issue of non point source discharges. The Clean Streams programme includes a sound policy underpinning, practical guides to implementation, costings and case studies of successful examples. It has been well received by the farming community and supported by the Council from a fund earmarked for this purpose.
Congratulations Environment Waikato.