Seeking Common Ground

Forest and Bird, Issue 298, 1 November 2000, Page 2

Seeking Common Ground

is

national president of Forest and Bird.

KEITH COAPPELE

y first encounter with protest action — sometimes called civil disobedience — was an antinuclear march in 1957. In hindsight, it wasn’t all that daring unless you call sitting on a road outrageously criminal. As it happened, the attention was focussed on the distinguished white-haired gentleman at the front, whereas us youngsters at the back were just ... there. Public protest and its exercise is an integral and vital part of democracy. There’s no dearth of examples as to its effectiveness; witness the fall of the Shah of Iran and President Marcos of the Philippines. In Western countries during the 1960-70s public protest was pretty much the action of choice. Some events were quite vicious, even fatal. But in the main, protest marches were jolly good fun. You got to halt the traffic, be the centre of attention for two minutes, walk up the main street behind the banner-of-the-week proclaiming the cause-of-the-week and you were escorted by goodhumoured police. On one occasion, whilst milling around at the bottom of Auckland’s Queen Street waiting for a march to begin, I met the controversial writer and politician John A. Lee. We chatted, formed up, and off we marched. Afterwards, he went home; I went to a wine bar and drank ghastly stuff from a cardboard box.

Life was different then. The word ‘environment didn’t gain common currency until 1969. Public policy was written in smoke-filled rooms. Some Government departments resembled ancient baronies. Others assumed a mandate to act in the public interest although they rarely consulted the people for whom they purported to act. Applications affecting the environment went through convoluted bureaucratic and adversarial processes, which often didn’t involve the public, or allow full public participation. Under the circumstances public protest was de rigueur.

Times have moved on with a concomitant reduction in public protest actions. Since the mid-1960s, various Acts of Parliament, most notably the Resource Management Act 1991, have brought public participation into the heart of environmental planning and policy drafting. Just

how deeply the public can participate is perhaps demonstrated by Forest and Bird’s present 30-odd cases before the Environment Court. Changes to environmental law have been matched by huge advances in other areas. There is now a Government Department (DoC) charged with managing its land, natural and historic resources for conservation purposes, with public participation through the national Conservation Authority and regional conservation boards. A Ministry for the Environment is charged with policy formulation. As a result of the information explosion of the last two decades we know a lot more about the environment. Good science on virtually any topic is readily available to those with a grasp on information technology. All political parties have environmental policies and are invariably open to sound arguments whereby they might improve them. Parliament’s select committees and legislative agenda are fertile places to pursue environmental objectives. More importantly, environmental awareness is becoming universal. The days when environmentalists were lampooned as the ‘loony sandal brigade’ are long gone. But this is no time to sit on our laurels. Forest and Bird must also move with the times or risk being ‘time warped’. Protest action cannot be done away with, it’s far too useful a tool. But too frequent use debases the currency and in any case there are other avenues to achieve good environmental outcomes. In my last editorial I spoke of extending the hand of friendship to the people of the West Coast. Given that sector groups of many persuasions are producing internal environmental policies, are keen to learn and want to become more environmentally responsible, that hand should be extended further. Forest and Bird, of course, already works with many of these organisations at Branch level. It’s time to bring that local focus to the national scene. We need to talk to sector groups, engage the subject matter, exchange ideas, explore avenues for common ground, and try and gain upon

their thinking.

‘We need to talk to sector groups, engage the subject matter, exchange ideas, explore avenues for common ground, and try and gain upon their thinking.’