March 2002 RM Journal
Adopting Sustainability as an Overarching Environmental Policy:
a Review of section 5 of the RMA
Peter Skelton and Ali Memon Environmental Management & Design Division
Lincoln University
INTRODUCTION
Since its “invention” by the World Commission on Environment and Development 14 years ago (WCED, 1987), the concept of sustainability has rapidly come to dominate environment and development policy discourses in a wide range of government forums around the world. The attractiveness of sustainability as a broad policy objective has not been limited to international, central and local government agencies and NGOs alone. There is also a substantial body of academic literature that debates the validity of the concept of sustainable development as a source of moral and political regeneration and as a new environmental ethic to guide decision-making in public and private spheres of life.
