News Item

The EDS publication Pathways to Prosperity, was launched by the Director-General of Conservation, Lou Sanson, in Auckland on Monday 29 February.

Pathways to Prosperity is a follow-up publication to EDS’s Vanishing Nature, also written by Senior Policy Analyst Dr Marie Brown and funded by the Law Foundation. It focuses on how to better safeguard biodiversity in development.

“Biodiversity is at its most vulnerable in a development context where there’s an acute contest between economic and environmental aspirations. We wanted to focus on that area of policy and practice and develop some ideas on how to improve business as usual,” said Dr Brown.

Pathways recommends a range of improvements from the improved use of bonds under the Resource Management Act 1991 and the increased use of outcome-based conditions through to a National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity and more effective planning at a strategic level. It will be of particular interest to resource managers, developers, council officials and environmental groups.

Dr Brown says “Ad hoc biodiversity protection has failed to address cumulative effects over time, leaving our flora and fauna in a perilous state. We think we’ve devised a package of ideas that will put us on the path toward a more prosperous future with thriving ecosystems and a robust economy.”

Further information about Pathways to Prosperity

The Law Foundation provided $50,000 towards the publication of this EDS book.