Govt goal efficient use of resources

Press, 4 December 1985, Page 35

Govt goal efficient use of resources

The goals of the Government’s environmental policy were consistent with its economic policy—the common goal was the efficient use of resources, said the Under-Secretary for the Environment, Mr Woollaston. He was giving an introductory address to a national workshop in nonmarket valuation methods and their use in environmental planning at the University of Canterbury’s School of Forestry. More than 100 people from Government, local and private bodies attended the four-day workshop organised by the University’s Centre for Resource Management with support from the Commission for the Environment and other Government departments. Mr Woollaston said that non-economic analytical models could contribute to sound decision making and needed to be better understood. “I am delighted with the interest in this workshop which is highly relevant to the Government’s policies,” he said. “This Government has never been in any doubt about the economic significance of the new arrange-

ments for environmental administration in New Zealand.” A major reason for the poor performance of the New Zealand economy when the Labour Party took office was the misallocation of resources, Mr Woollaston said. .“There was a striking correlation between some areas of economic distortion and manifest environmental damage. The close relationship between sound development and the good management of the natural resource base had not been conceded. “A proper assessment of. the value of a particular development proposal is inextricably linked with an evaluation of the needs and aspirations of people and of their various communities. “I see considerable scope for the use of studies based on the techniques of economic valuation. It is no longer possible to promote environmental protection on purely subjective grounds and by the adoption of adversarial techniques.” While the Government approach to economic policy was towards less Government involvement, in the

environment field Government intervention had been judged more appropriate, Mr Woollaston said. “I suggest it is possible for both approaches to satisfy efficiency criteria in terms of net welfare gains. The challenge for you at this workshop is to fashion techniques which are suitable for particular decisionmaking processes and which are cost-effective in terms of resources required to run them. “The ultimate use of the techniques you are discussing is to assist and inform a political decision-making ■process. They will therefore need to be sufficiently robust to withstand the subjective approach of those with axes to grind.” A member of the organising committee, Mr Brett Odgers, said that the workshop would study ways of extending the conventional cost-benefit analysis of resource use to take into better account the full value of resources. Contributors to the workshop include. four United States authorities and two from Australia.