title: Halting indigenous biodiversity decline: ambiguity, equity, and outcomes in RMA assessment of significance

authors: Walker, Susan F.

subjects: collective action

abstract: In New Zealand, assessment of ‘significance’ is undertaken to give effect to a legal requirement for local authorities to provide for protection of significant sites under the Resource Management Act (1991). The ambiguity of the statute enables different interests to define significance according to their goals: vested interests (developers), local authorities, and non-vested interests in pursuit of protection of environmental public goods may advance different definitions. We examine two sets of criteria used for assessment of significance for biological diversity under the Act. Criteria adapted from the 1980s Protected Natural Areas Programme are inadequate to achieve the maintenance of biological diversity if ranking is used to identify only highest priority sites. Norton and Roper-Lindsay (2004) propose a narrow definition of significance and criteria that identify only a few high-quality sites as significant. Both sets are likely to serve the interests of developers and local authorities, but place the penalty of uncertainty on non-vested interests seeking to maintain biological diversity, and are likely to exacerbate the decline of biological diversity and the loss of landscape-scale processes required for its persistence. When adopting criteria for assessment of significance, we suggest local authorities should consider whose interests are served by different criteria sets, and who will bear the penalty of uncertainty regarding biological diversity outcomes. They should also ask whether significance criteria are adequate, and sufficiently robust to the uncertainty inherent in the assessment of natural values, to halt the decline of indigenous biological diversity.

text: Halting indigenous biodiversity decline: ambiguity, equity, and outcomes in RMA assessment of significance In New Zealand, assessment of ‘significance’ is undertaken to give effect to a legal requirement for local authorities to provide for protection of significant sites under the Resource Management Act (1991). The ambiguity of the statute enables different interests to define significance according to their goals: vested interests (developers), local authorities, and non-vested interests in pursuit of protection of environmental public goods may advance different definitions. We examine two sets of criteria used for assessment of significance for biological diversity under the Act. Criteria adapted from the 1980s Protected Natural Areas Programme are inadequate to achieve the maintenance of biological diversity if ranking is used to identify only highest priority sites. Norton and Roper-Lindsay (2004) propose a narrow definition of significance and criteria that identify only a few high-quality sites as significant. Both sets are likely to serve the interests of developers and local authorities, but place the penalty of uncertainty on non-vested interests seeking to maintain biological diversity, and are likely to exacerbate the decline of biological diversity and the loss of landscape-scale processes required for its persistence. When adopting criteria for assessment of significance, we suggest local authorities should consider whose interests are served by different criteria sets, and who will bear the penalty of uncertainty regarding biological diversity outcomes. They should also ask whether significance criteria are adequate, and sufficiently robust to the uncertainty inherent in the assessment of natural values, to halt the decline of indigenous biological diversity.

year: 2008

title: Aspects of the geomorphology of the Greywacke Ranges bordering the Lower and Middle Waikato Basins

authors: Selby, Michael J.

subjects: Waikato

abstract: The fault-bounded blocks which make up the Greywacke Ranges bordering the Lower and Middle Waikato Basins have a deep red-weathered regolith and are covered by mantles of volcanic ash which can be used for dating ground surfaces. The drainage texture is exceedingly fine compared with that of Dartmoor (U.K.) and Unaka Mountains (U.S.A.) This is attributable to rainfall type, regolith, vegetation cover and soil physical properties. The major types of mass movement are deep fossil slumps on upper slopes where the regolith is deep; debris slides on mid- and lower slopes where the regolith is thin; and seepage heads controlled by ground water conditions. The valley floors show both stream incision, and aggradation resulting from infill with mass movement debris. Deforestation has increased the frequency of mass movement during high intensity rainstorms and the slopes are at present becoming adjusted to changed equilibrium conditions.

text: Aspects of the geomorphology of the Greywacke Ranges bordering the Lower and Middle Waikato Basins The fault-bounded blocks which make up the Greywacke Ranges bordering the Lower and Middle Waikato Basins have a deep red-weathered regolith and are covered by mantles of volcanic ash which can be used for dating ground surfaces. The drainage texture is exceedingly fine compared with that of Dartmoor (U.K.) and Unaka Mountains (U.S.A.) This is attributable to rainfall type, regolith, vegetation cover and soil physical properties. The major types of mass movement are deep fossil slumps on upper slopes where the regolith is deep; debris slides on mid- and lower slopes where the regolith is thin; and seepage heads controlled by ground water conditions. The valley floors show both stream incision, and aggradation resulting from infill with mass movement debris. Deforestation has increased the frequency of mass movement during high intensity rainstorms and the slopes are at present becoming adjusted to changed equilibrium conditions.

year: 1967

title: Claiming collective space: Kaupapa Maori in psychology

authors: Levy, Michelle Patricia

subjects: Maori

abstract: From its inception, the Psychology Department at the University of Waikato has had a focus on issues of culture, particularly those of relevance for Maori, with these early foundations laid by Emeritus Professor James Ritchie, who in 1965 took up the founding chair of the Department. These foundations have continued to be built on, utilising a variety of different strategies. Drawing on a research base which has emerged primarily from within the Maori and Psychology Research Unit at Waikato University, this paper explores strategies which have served to carve out and claim space for Maori, both within the department, and within the wider discipline of psychology.

text: Claiming collective space: Kaupapa Maori in psychology From its inception, the Psychology Department at the University of Waikato has had a focus on issues of culture, particularly those of relevance for Maori, with these early foundations laid by Emeritus Professor James Ritchie, who in 1965 took up the founding chair of the Department. These foundations have continued to be built on, utilising a variety of different strategies. Drawing on a research base which has emerged primarily from within the Maori and Psychology Research Unit at Waikato University, this paper explores strategies which have served to carve out and claim space for Maori, both within the department, and within the wider discipline of psychology.

year: 2008