Environmental protest in New Zealand (1997–2010)

Abstract

Protest actions are an important indicator of public concern, raising awareness and highlighting perceived failings in administrative practices. With increasing prominence of environmental challenges there has been a move for states to incorporate stakeholders, potentially reducing the need for such confrontational actions. This article uses protest event analysis and case comparison to examine the scale and character of environmental protest actions in New Zealand from 1997-2010. This period was one of relative socio-economic stability, coupled with growing awareness of environmental challenges. The article considers the relative level of action of grassroots groups and more formalized NGOs, asking which issues generated protest actions and which factors contributed to environmental campaign outcomes. The findings suggest that, although protest actions can strengthen campaigns, the outcomes ultimately remain heavily dependent on the priorities of the state.

Fragmentation or Evolution? Understanding Change Within the New Zealand Environmental Movement

“…Changes in government approaches to managing environmental issues and relations with organizations within the movement have also complicated the confrontational relationship that had characterized the earlier period (Downes, 2000). Although the relationship has become more complex since the election of a right of centre National government focused more on exploiting natural resources (see O'Brien, 2012O'Brien, , 2013cInterview, 1 April 2011), the pattern of fragmentation can be seen to continue.…”

“…Paralleling the professionalization of the large groups, there has also been an emergence of a small number of radical groups over the period, such as Native Forest Action in the late 1990s and Save Happy Valley in the 2000s. Both groups adopted more radical means to pursue their claims, particularly the use of occupation camps to block the extraction of native timber and coal, respectively (O'Brien, 2012). 13 Although the movement has seen professionalization and radicalization to different degrees, the growth of local community restoration groups is perhaps the dominant trend in terms of scale.…”

“…The emergence and consolidation of an active Green Party since the early 1990s 1 coupled with increasing institutional adoption of environmental concerns has reduced opportunities for claimmaking actions targeting the state (Buhrs, 2003). The result has been that large environmental movement organizations that flourished in the 1970s and 1980s have declined significantly in scale and level of activity (O'Brien, 2012). This decline has paralleled increased institutional access by remaining groups and a rise in non-political, local community restoration groups.…”

Camping, climbing trees and marching to Parliament: spatial dimensions of environmental protest in New Zealand

“…Issues of local concern included protection of trees and animals, waste management, construction and pollution. At the national level, campaigns around native forest logging, GE field trials and mineral (coal, oil and gas) exploration dominated (O'Brien 2012). Figure 1 shows the number of protest events that targeted local, national and international issues over the 1997-2013 period.…”

Social movements, resistance and social change in Aotearoa/New Zealand: an intervention for dialogue, collaboration and synergy

“…While the literature on social movements, activism and social change in Aotearoa has been developing in the last years in response to the observable consequences of the 'New Zealand Experiment' (Taylor 2008;O'Brien 2012O'Brien , 2015Grey 2013;Rashbrooke 2013;Tucker 2013;Bradford 2014;Taylor & Grey 2014;Bond et al 2015;Lamusse et al 2015), there is still a relative paucity of intellectual and political knowledge to generate further resources for both theory and practice, which would enrich the strategic and tactical repertoire of social movements. Furthermore, as social scientists it is crucial to be able to explain what makes Aotearoa different from other countries when it comes to the ongoing social struggles.…”