This paper reviews the progress to date of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy and identifies key developments and emerging issues. The paper examines the provision of storage, water use efficiency, environmental flow adjustments, nutrients from land use intensification, biodiversity...

California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) adopted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on April 23, 2009 requires a 10% reduction in the average greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensity of the state’s transportation fuels by 2020. This regulation is expected to reduce lifecycle GHG...

Ethanol produced from renewable biomass, such as lignocellulosic feedstock, is one of the alternative energy resources that can be environmentally friendly. However, physical and chemical barriers caused by the close association of the main components of lignocellulosic biomass, as well as...

There is a need for better understanding and estimating forests non-market values. This study aimed to investigate the environmental and social values of plantation forests in New Zealand focusing in Hawke’s Bay. Identified stakeholder groups considered Erosion control, Water quality and...

The National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management now requires that water quality objectives and limits be set for all water bodies in New Zealand. Where objectives result in the development of nitrate limits for waterways and development pressure is likely to make these limits difficult to...

The River Values Assessment System (RiVAS and RiVAS+) are tools that enable regional councils and others to ‘objectively’ and systematically evaluate rivers in their regions for their relative importance across the range of river values (e.g., native birds, irrigation and tangata whenau)....

Nutrient emissions from agricultural land are now widely recognized as one of the key contributors to poor water quality in local lakes, rivers and streams. Nutrient trading has been suggested as a regulatory tool to improve and protect water quality. However, farmers’ attitudes suggest that...

A market failure exists in the supply of industry-good goods and services with characteristics of non-rivalry and non-excludability. Compulsory levy frameworks are one form of intervention that governments use to address this market failure. Key components of the New Zealand levy framework, the...