Sustainable Development
Why is this a priority?
MAF is a sustainable development agency with a focus on the sustainable development of natural resources to ensure the future prosperity of New Zealanders. Agriculture, horticulture and forestry use about 52 percent of New Zealand's land and about 77 percent of its abstracted water. Agriculture is responsible for about 49 percent of the country's greenhouse gas emissions while forestry plays a crucial carbon sequestration role in our climate change response policy. The primary sector is at the heart of New Zealand's economy, its employment, and its economic growth prospects; it is responsible for over 60 percent of merchandise export earnings and has key intersects with other sectors such as processing, niche manufacturing and tourism. The sector depends on the biophysical environment and the natural resources they draw from that environment. Therefore they have major environmental impacts, both positive and negative. How the sector uses and manages natural resources directly affects the long term prosperity of New Zealand.
What is MAF aiming to achieve by focusing on this priority?
The overall Sustainable Development strategic priority objective is to provide:
- Clear and enduring guidance to MAF on policies impacting on the inter-relationships between people, the biophysical environment and natural resource use.
- Guidance which optimises wider social, economic and environmental benefits to people − including future generations − over time.
- Guidance precise enough to drive policy and resource use allocation choices for today, and flexible enough to be tailored by future generations to their different circumstances and technological opportunities.
- More specific objectives are likely to include:
- Policy responses to climate change which meet or exceed New Zealand's Kyoto Protocol obligations while optimising economic growth.
- Effective and efficient solutions to water quality and allocation problems relevant to the sector.
- A more robust framework for land and forestry management decisions which addresses land use issues.
What are some of the critical issues MAF is addressing?
MAF is involved in the following critical issues facing the sector:
- Reduction of net greenhouse gas emissions.
- Adaptation to global warming.
- Sustainable land management, including water and soil management and conservation.
- Water quality.
- Water allocation.
- Sustainable forestry.
- Access to rural land for recreational purposes.
One of MAF's major focuses is on climate change policy, the aim of which is to reduce net emissions, with some effort in adaptation. MAF partners the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) in the Sustainable Water Programme of Action, which addresses water quality and allocation issues. MAF is also active in sustainable land management, and has major regulatory, policy and service delivery responsibilities in relation to forestry sustainability. While work is underway in all the above fields, the completion of MAF Policy's sustainable development flagship project and its adoption as a MAF-wide strategic priority will provide more direction and guidance in the way the Ministry addresses these issues.
Contact for Enquiries
Strategy and Performance Group
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526, Wellington
Tel: +64 4 894 0100
Fax: +64 4 894 0738
Contact this person
