New Zealand

From EIA_Wiki

In New Zealand, EIA is currently administered via the Resource Management Act (RMA, 1991).

New Zealand Resource Management Act (RMA, 1991)

Internationally, the RMA is significant as a sustainability benchmark, which was the result of a four-year process of law and government reform. The RMA is an omnibus law, which repealed or amended numerous statutes, regulations and orders and integrated their functions into one legal regime with a single purpose of ‘promoting the sustainable management of natural and physical resources’. Section 5 of the Act defines sustainable management amongst other things as avoiding or remedying adverse environmental impacts. This imposes a biophysical test of sustainability on activities. The RMA does not define an EIA process (instead this is detailed in a good practice guide issued by the Ministry of Environment).