Doing the right thing in hard times
The global financial crisis has dominated our media for months now. Generally, despite massive multi-government packages, the global situation has continued to deteriorate. Most forecasters indicate more difficult times are yet to come for New Zealand. Not surprisingly, these circumstances are causing businesses, councils and government to seriously cut costs and revise future plans.
Already we see examples of firms trimming expenditure where they perceive the least immediate effect on the bottom-line – research and environmental initiatives are two prime examples. Plenty of historical evidence shows these actions will be short-sighted and, with respect to the environment in particular, usually results in larger, more expensive remedies later. One need only review the history of biofuels where New Zealand’s leading research in the 1970’s was shelved during the tougher economic times of the early 1980’s; or the failure to adopt policies in the early 1990’s, when evidence of climate change and diminishing petroleum reserves was already strong, to moderate our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions profile. (Since that time NZ has had one of the fastest increases in GHG emissions amongst developed economies, leaving present and future generations with a more difficult and expensive problem to solve).
Doing the right thing in hard times requires courage to make difficult choices. Colin James, a respected media commentator, observed recently that forward thinking businesses are already well-advanced in laying the ground-work for the ‘new world’ – too much capital has been eroded, institutional trust lost and ‘jo public’ investors hurt – to ever contemplate a return to the way things were in 2007. These organizations view present conditions as an opportunity to action new operating models and systems, and invest in acquiring the new management skills required for this new world. Some of these changes require more rather than less investment; others require increased research to develop new technologies faster. While world economic growth may have stalled, the problems confronting the environment have not diminished in sympathy. The issues we faced in 2007 with respect to water, land contamination, access to raw materials for the fertilizers that drive our farming systems, loss of biodiversity and increased biosecurity risk associated with globalization have not diminished. And, the world’s population and their demand for food continue to grow. Rather than being addressed, because of the economic situation, these fundamental problems with managing our natural resources sustainably, risk being put to the side. Already two factors – the reintroduction of dairy subsidies by the EU (and a rise of trade protectionism generally) and a rapid increase in poverty globally – are set to exacerbate initiatives to remedy environmental degradation and threats to the ecosystems that underpin life.
New Zealand faces tough choices in these harder times too. Progress in protecting and restoring the iconic biodiversity that makes New Zealand distinctive, beautiful and productive has been very slow even in economic good times. Will any gains made in recent times be lost over the next five years because of expenditure cuts and, as Susan Walker identifies in later pages, will we have the methods in place to really know what is being lost or gained? Biosecurity risk will likely increase as some of our trading partners face heavy expenditure constraints in developing their internal control systems; and as regional councils seek to control an ever widening array of weeds and pests within the bounds of modest rate increases. Positively, most food (and other) exporters are benefiting from the lower exchange rate and this should lead New Zealand’s economic recovery earlier and quicker than in other countries. But these industries need to keep-up momentum to reduce their adverse environmental impacts and improve resource productivity if they are to be viable and credible over the long-term. At Landcare Research we recognise the need to lead and do the right thing in hard times too. We are maintaining our commitment to lower our GHG emissions, waste and water use; and to invest in research to better manage vital ecosystem services such as pollination; to measure progress in conservation management and protection of harmful effects on our biodiversity and provide better governance and institutional frameworks for managing old and difficult problems such as water allocation. You can read about what we are doing in these fields in this edition of Discovery. As always, I welcome and value any comments you might have on any of these topics.
Warren Parker
Chief Executive