Pathway to Oceans Reform: EDS Oceans Reform Final Report

Aotearoa New Zealand’s oceans support most of the country’s wildlife, a sizeable blue economy, and have strong cultural and social value. Although often perceived as wild and untouched, the oceans are experiencing profound and increasing impacts from human activity. There have been numerous reports and scientific papers that reach similar conclusions. Our oceans management system is not up to the job of managing the oceans well and we need to urgently fix it. In this report we provide recommendations on how to fix the system. They include developing a National Oceans Strategy, National Marine Spatial Planning Framework, Marine Protected Areas Act and Oceans Act along with establishing an Oceans Commission to act as a champion and voice for the ocean. The time has passed for talking, we now need to get on with oceans reform.

You can download a pdf from our project policy page here