Designing law and policy for the health and resilience of marine and coastal ecosystems – Lessons from (and for) Aotearoa New Zealand

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Ecosystem-based approaches to marine management, which integrate marine law and policy across sectors, communities and scales, are increasingly advocated for in international policy debates. We highlight critical and timely opportunities in Aotearoa New Zealand’s evolving legal context, to support an ecosystem approach across fisheries regulation, biodiversity conservation, environmental effects management, and Indigenous or customary rights.

Given the unprecedented scale of proposed law reform affecting the ocean in Aotearoa, there are important global lessons to be elucidated from (and for) the Aotearoa New Zealand experience, revealing the potential for law to centre the health of ocean ecosystems and related people in integrated marine decision-making.