Case studies and their rationale

Case studies provide data to test propositions, and address research questions. The case study method is an established way of undertaking research where an indepth examination of events is used, instead of large samples or quantitative measurement of a small set of variables. 371 _Using more than one study provides opportunities for comparison and assists in generalising research findings. There is, however, risk of selection bias. Therefore, what are the criteria used for selection of case studies?

1. They focus primarily on environmental problems, so we can look at questions about environmental policy effectiveness.

2. They are the subject of public policy development at a central government level and debate both within government and outside, and have different results in terms of policy product. This provides an opportunity to test ideas about policy development, variability and causal factors.

3. The case studies span governments of different political persuasions and provide an opportunity to examine what difference government priorities made.

4. MfE and/or DoC play significant roles, providing information about organisational attributes and influences.

5. They involve a multitude of competing interests and are subject to the vicissitudes of intervening events, allowing us to weigh the influence of complexity and the wider New Zealand socio-economic context.

4: Analytical framework, methods, and case study rationale

These general criteria can be applied to a number of environmental initiatives by central government. What were these initiatives and why have some been selected for study ahead of others?

Answering this question involved using Briefs to the Incoming Minister (BIM) for the Environment following general elections between 1999 and 2011 and looking at what these documents said about policy priorities. There is risk in this approach in that it could simply reveal the biases of agenda setting. Nevertheless BIMs are supposed to be departments’ best endeavours to identify dispassionately what they see as the major policy issues.372 _{They can, of course, involve agenda} setting, self interest, or interest group influence. Nevertheless, looking at a number of BIMs over time helps winnowout outliers and identify common themes, either for ongoing issues, or where officials may believe (correctly or incorrectly) that some issues no longer deserve priority.

In 1999, MfE’s BIM identified nine issues: loss of indigenous biodiversity; land use and water quality; response to climate change; waste management; urban sustainability; cost effective environmental regulation (RMA and HASNO); biotechnology and genetically modified organisms (GMOs); the marine environment; and Treaty of Waitangi implications for environmental management.373

In 2002, the BIM identified waste management: energy and transport impacts; oceans management; agriculture, horticulture and forestry impacts on land use and water quality; urban development; tourism impacts; the environmental regulatory regime; monitoring and reporting; indigenous bioversity decline; and biosecurity risks.374

The 2005 BIM described what MfE was doing more than identifying specific environmental issues, unlike preceding BIMs or ones that followed. However, it is possible to discern from the document a focus on urban design, air quality, waste, rural land use effects on soils, water and biodiversity, oceans management, climate change, and hazardous substances and pollution.375

372 _{SSC, "State Servants, Political Parties and Elections: Guidance for the 2008 Election Period," ed. State}

Services Commission (Wellington: State Services Commission, 2008). P.29.

373 _{MfE,”Briefing to the Incoming Minister”, http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/about/briefing-oct99.pdf}

(accessed 14/4/2013) P.3.

374_{MfE, “Briefing to the Incoming Minister 2002”, http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/about/briefing-}

jul02.pdf (accessed 14/4/2013) Pp.8-18.

375 _{MfE, “Briefing to the Incoming Minister 2005”, http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/about/briefing-}

4: Analytical framework, methods, and case study rationale

Three years later, the 2008 BIM identified climate change; freshwater quality: RMA implementation issues; issues arising from Treaty of Waitangi concerns; decline in indigenous biodiversity; and pressures on the marine environment.376

In 2011, the BIM identified freshwater management issues; climate change; marine issues; indigenous biodiversity loss; RMA implementation issues; and Treaty of Waitangi concerns.377 A similar group of issues is evident in the various subjects reported on by the PCE between 1998 and 2008.378

Common threads running through these lists are;

 The environmental regulatory regime (especially the operation of the RMA).

 Implications for environmental management arising from giving effect to the Treaty of Waitangi and resolving Treaty claims.

 Response to climate change.

 Decline in indigenous biodiversity.

 The impact of land use on water quality.

 Waste management issues (although these did not feature in the later list of priorities.

 Environmental effects in the marine environment

At various times other issues were present but did not appear consistently in the briefings, which is not to say that the actual issue was not significant or did not endure, but that from a departmental perspective they did not make it onto the briefing priorities.

For the purpose of this study three of the enduring issues were selected as case studies. These are the loss of indigenous biodiversity, decline in freshwater quality, and environmental effects in the marine environment. These issues meet the five criteria described above. However, why these three and not the others? First, for simple reasons of manageability, three studies were seen as sufficient for triangulation purposes. Of the other topics, waste management involved only MfE and not DoC. The regulatory regime topics were of a different nature. The Treaty of Waitangi issue is more about

376 _{MfE, ”Briefing to the Incoming Minister 2008”, http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/about/briefing-}

incoming-minister-2008/briefing-environmental-sustainability/index.html (accessed 14/4/2013) Paragraph 16.

377 _{MfE, “Briefing to the Incoming Minister 2011”, http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/about/briefing-}

incoming-minister-2011/nrs-bim-2011.pdf (accessed 14/4/2013) Pp.6-16.

4: Analytical framework, methods, and case study rationale

human rights than a specific environmental issue in itself although it has environmental management implications. The RMA and environmental effectivness is a very large subject.379 _{It may well prove} suitable as a case study to address the questions raised in this research but for reasons of size and longevity it would require study in its own right to do it justice. Finally there is the case of climate change. This has proved problematic. Initially, it was intended to include it as an additional case study. Some data was collected along with some preliminary analysis as part of this research. It certainly meets the selection criteria, especially in complexity. Compared to the selected case studies more has been written about climate change policy analysing both development (perhaps rather cursorily) and policy implications (in considerable depth).380 _{The problem with climate change is that} it is a huge subject, like the RMA. The CEO of MfE commented that to do justice to a study of how it developed would require looking at the files of more than ten different departments over a period of twenty years, a daunting task.381

Consequently, reasons for choosing the case studies of freshwater, oceans management and

biodiversity are that each met all five choice criteria, they are manageable in terms of scope and data collection, and they were the subject of government policy attention throughout the period of study between the 1990s and 2000s.

So far, the study has set out the focus for research on environmental policy variability, reviewed relevent literature, looked at the New Zealand context, and, in this chapter, established an analytical framwork, research questions, and methodology. The next three chapters cover the case studies.

379 _{See for example Connor, Institutional Change for Sustainable Development. Pp.87-131.}

380 _{See R. Chapman, Boston, J., Schwass, M., ed. Confronting Climate Change (Wellington: Victoria University}

Press,2006), M.R. Harbrow, "Trends in New Zealand Climate Change Policy" (Massey University, 2007), T. Bührs, "Climate Change Policy and New Zealand’s ‘National Interest’: The Need for Embedding Climate Change Policy into a Sustainable Development Agenda. ," Political Science 60, no. 1 (2008), Boston, "The Complicated Politics of Climate Change.", Bertram, The Carbon Challenge: New Zealand's Emission Trading Scheme, G. Kelly, "Climate Change Policy: Actions and Barriers in New Zealand," International Journal of Climate Change Impacts and Responses 2, no. 1 (2010). And numerous articles on climate change in Policy Quarterly, particularly Volume 4, number 4.

5: Oceans policy