An analysis of the Department of Conservation's advocacy role

Abstract

The Department of Conservation is New Zealand's government agency entrusted with the management and administration of public conservation land. It is less widely known that the department is charged with a conservation advocacy function under the Conservation Act 1987, which it exercises in part through the planning processes of the Resource Management Act 1991. This advocacy function enables the department to become involved in statutory processes affecting private land. A detailed analysis confirms that the department was given the advocacy role to ensure there was a strong voice for conservation, extending over both public and private land, within a nationally integrated conservation management agency. While the scope of the role is subject to some disagreement, a statutory interpretation process makes it clear that the role enables the department to be proactive in terms of pleading for conservation values in planning decisions. There has been considerable controversy as to whether an advocacy role of this nature is appropriately performed by the state in respect of private land, and equally whether it should be the department that performs it. This paper argues that conservation advocacy is an appropriate state role and that the department is best placed within the state to carry out the role. However the nature of resource-based disputes and the lack of clarity surrounding the advocacy role make it problematic to perform. This means that great care must be taken by the department both in exercising the role and in explaining it. The paper suggests that there are ways to clarify the advocacy role that should be explored. The first would be to make the advocacy role more directly compatible with the provisions of the Resource Management Act 1991. The second would be to consider removing the statutory functions of the Minister of Conservation under the Resource Management Act 1991 so as to avoid any perceptions of a conflict between that role, and the advocacy role of the department under the Conservation Act 1987.