Monday, 27 May 2002

Ministers have approved a work programme designed to produce a draft Oceans Policy by June next year.

Stage Two of the Oceans Policy process will focus on how to achieve the things that New Zealanders identified as important to them in the consultation undertaken last year, says the minister leading the process, Pete Hodgson.

“The Oceans Policy will provide a comprehensive framework for managing the marine environment,” Mr Hodgson said. “We are setting out to achieve better integration of existing marine management and to ensure we can deal with future challenges, such as ocean bioprospecting.”

On the basis of the consultation last year seven key issues will be addressed in policy development over the coming year: holistic management; the Treaty of Waitangi; compliance and enforcement; decision-making models; information management; integrated management; monitoring and measurement. Work groups involving officials, Maori and stakeholders will consider these issues and develop policy options to be included in a public discussion paper.

The first step will be to identify the goals and objectives for the Oceans Policy on the basis of the submissions received in the public consultation process last year. A stocktake of existing legal and management processes will identify gaps and weaknesses the Oceans Policy will need to address.

Submissions on the discussion paper will be analysed in late 2003.

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