A study conducted by a doctoral student has brought to light a worrying trend in New Zealand. Marie Brown, a Law and Science student, looked at “ecological compensation” across 245 conditions in 81 different resource consents granted across New Zealand.
By scoring ten surveyed activities on a scale of zero to three, she found over 35% of requirements were not being met. Marie says the reason for the study was based on her experiences with exchanges that occur, “all the time, where damage to the environment results in an agreement being made for a positive conservation action to be taken.”
She found the energy generation industry met all consents, while agriculture performed the worst, only meeting 5%. The study has already prompted calls for a crackdown on environmental monitoring.
Read more at University of Waikato