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New Zealand introduced its Environmental Protection and Enhancement procedures, partially based on the Canadian EIA procedure, in 1974 by means of a cabinet minute. At present, EIA in New Zealand is, in principle, almost comprehensive and flexible, in that it applies to all projects and, in addition, to policies and plans prepared under the Resources Management Act provisions. Resulting from a revolution in environmental management, the Resource Management Act, in New Zealand, has replaced numerous previous Acts, including the town and Country Planning Act 1977, the Clean Air Act 1972 and the Water and Soil Conservation Act 1967. The Resource Management Act has introduced environmental impact assessment as a central element in a decision-making process designed to achieve the goal of sustainable management. The Ministry for the environment has issued a guide to the Act (MfE, 1991b), a single guide to scoping (MfE, 1992b) and several guides mentioning the environmental assessment or regional policies and plans and of district plans (MfE, 1991c, d, 1992a, 1993) and several other EIA leaflets. The Acts provides the outline of the EIA process, but leaves much detail to be provided by individual regional authorities. Under the current arrangement in New Zealand, the local government has the responsibility of administrating the EIA system and, in particular, the planning departments in local authorities are responsible for dealing with proponents and making recommendations on the basis of the EIA. The Resource Management Act provides for a two-phase screening process and encourages scoping. It indicates the content requirement for EIA report, provides for public participation and consultation and requires that the report be considered in the decision. The main steps involved in EIA in New Zealand are: Alternatives/Design Screening Scoping EIA Report Preparation Review Decision Making Monitoring