By Bryan Walker
Posted on Aug. 12, 2009. Listed in:
Castles in the Sand:What’s Happening to the New Zealand Coast? is the arresting title of a new book written by Raewyn Peart, a senior policy analyst for the Environmental Defence Society.
There is always something happening to the New Zealand coast. Slow natural processes, including tectonic plate movement, are forever shaping and re-shaping it.
But this well researched and illustrated volume is mainly concerned with the impact of human activities on the coastline so important to New Zealand life. They have been insufficiently controlled, which gives every reason for alarm.
The early impacts are chronicled, few of them good news ecologically. Maori settlement resulted in the disappearance of much of the original coastal forest and the extinction of 38 species of birds, frogs and skinks on the mainland through over-harvesting, habitat loss and rat predation.
Early European contact brought a vast extraction of seals, whales, timber and flax. European settlement finished off what little coastal forest remained, drained coastal wetlands on an enormous scale, and significantly modified sand dunes and estuarine areas.
However, none of these changes have prevented the coast from becoming an important focus for many human activities in NZ society – beachgoing, camping, fishing, swimming, modest bach-building among them.
Artists and writers like Colin McCahon and Keri Hulme drew inspiration from the coast. In the section of the book which focuses largely on the first two thirds of the 20th century, the author’s sense of the simple pleasures and activities of the beach accords with my own memories of absorbed childhood hours on the sand and the excitement of occasional holidays in borrowed baches.
But as our society has become more numerous and richer, some of us very much richer, the bach has been transformed into the holiday-home and the beach mansion. The mix of owners has also changed, from working class, to largely urban middle-class families, to the affluent upper middle class.
Peart tries to be fair about the architectural qualities of some holiday homes, but there are larger issues involved than the merits of particular houses.
These are development issues. The pressure to develop new resorts is very strong. Councils who are responsible for allowing new developments lack directives and legislative provision which would give grounds for objection.
The implementation of the Resource Management Act in the mid-nineties was severely limited. The Minister, Simon Upton, stated that the RMA was only about managing environmental effects and was definitely not about directing what type of activity should or should not take place in an area, nor about examining social or economic aspects. It could not be used to control subdivision because subdivision had no environmental effect!
Peart surveys the early large-scale, stand-alone holiday resort developments of Pauanui, Omaha and Matarangi. She acknowledges some good qualities, but notes the levelling of the frontal dune system in Pauanui and Matarangi and the positioning of houses too close to the coastal edge in Omaha resulting in appeals for compensation when erosion ocurred.
She warns that large coastal resorts established since the 1970s have often been located on low-lying sandspits where the risk of coastal erosion and flooding is an ongoing issue – and likely to get worse with climate change.
New coastal development models have emerged in the last 20 years. High-rise precincts have occurred at Mount Maunganui and Orewa. The battle is far from over as to whether these will be permitted to expand.
Residential canal developments are now here to stay, but Peart asks how many we want along our coastline and points out the unforeseen problems which may occur as sea levels rise.
Rural-residential coastal developments have moved towards integrated enclaves which provide high-amenity second homes. Well-designed they can lead to extensive replanting of indigenous species, habitat restoration initiatives and ongoing weed and pest eradication.
But badly designed they merely ‘domesticate’ the rural environment by dotting large houses in bays and on hillsides along previously rural coastlines. Behind gates and private roads they can exclude the public from large stretches of the coast.
Peart considers a variety of other factors bearing on coastal development, many of them negative, though on the positive side is the welcome arrival of coastal reserves and regional parks.
But it is the question of management which dominates the later chapters of the book. There was much debate in the 1970s about the possibility of some kind of commission which would prevent poorly designed coastal subdivision from extending further along the coastline.
But what emerged in the late 1980s and 1990s was legislation which on the one hand addressed the protection of remaining ecological systems but on the other relaxed controls over coastal subdivision and development. A marriage of market ideology and environmental concern which had mixed results, many of them poor, as Peart’s careful survey reveals.
Looking to the future Peart recognises that pressures to develop coastal land are only going to increase with a growing and aging population. At the same time the rise in sea levels resulting from climate change will put many existing coastal settlements at greater risk. Unsightly protection works could be demanded.
She has many suggestions for managing future development, based on two questions: Should there be any development in the area at all? If so, what density and type of buildings are appropriate and where should they be situated?
It sounds simple, but she regards it as a paradigm shift. In the past we have moulded the coastal landscape to fit our development plans. Under the new paradigm development would be designed to fit into and enhance the landscape.
To achieve this way of managing development she suggests an independent Coastal Commission and outlines the functions it could perform, aided by legislative changes. There is much valuable information throughout the book which gives substance and authority to her recommendation of a Commission.
It is to be hoped that the New Zealand public will insist that central government assert itself against poorly regulated development and take a strong role in the protection of of our coast.
More great articles on Celsias:
A Joint Fight for Fisheries Future in NZ
The State of Brazil's Environment.
