1 Introduction
This paper explores the reasons why use rights approaches have not been applied more widely in the allocation or use of natural resources or the environment generally in New Zealand, and to identify potential solutions for taking them further. Much of the detail and underlying literature is assumed from a previous paper (Guerin 2003b) to simplify this one and allow a tighter focus.
Section 2 outlines how use rights have evolved and discusses some of the key theoretical considerations behind them. It examines reasons why governments or communities might choose to establish an environmental rights regime for the use of a natural resource.
That resource may be a depletable commodity such as coal, a flow such as water, or absorptive or assimilative capacity, such as the ability of water or land to accept and degrade pollution from human activities. The paper then discusses issues for government in managing such regimes, including the need for regulatory regimes and supporting information systems, conflicts between public policy and private business objectives, and the potential for costly litigation and incentives for corruption.
This discussion is set in a particularly New Zealand context. The resources are not unique, but New Zealand has gone to an unusual degree in delegating most environmental management decisions (including policies on air, water and coastal space) to local government. These bodies have been given relatively little guidance, the resources they manage are often individually quite small and the central government has retained limited powers to set central rules.
Fisheries and minerals are managed centrally with settled regimes in place. For other resources the focus is therefore on design principles and guidelines for how existing arrangements can be improved to provide more support to, and fill gaps at, the local level. This could involve legislative action, funding, information or service provision.
Section 3 reviews the requirements for achieving optimal outcomes from a use rights regime in practice, examining issues such as determining and obtaining the necessary information, specifying the rights or the process by which they will later be specified, valuation principles, registration and trading systems, and transition arrangements. Section 4 examines the necessary legal and institutional structures. Concluding remarks are in Section 5
