Kaitiakitanga
= "Kaitiakitanga means stewardship and guardianship and protection and is also incorporated in the New Zealand Resource Managemnt Act 1991". [1]
Description
Klaus Bosselmann:
"Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern presented the Maori concept of kaitiakitanga as the key for combating climate change.
She explained it in this way:
- “It means guardianship. But not just guardianship, but the responsibility of care for the environment in which we live, and the idea that we have a duty of care that eventually hands to the next generation, and the one after. We all hold this responsibility in our own nations, but the challenge of climate change requires us to look beyond the domestic. Our duty of care is as global as the challenge of climate change.”
‘Guardianship’, ‘responsibility of care’, ‘duty of care’, ‘beyond the domestic’ – what does that all mean?
Can kaitiakitanga save the planet?
The Prime Minister called on UN Member States to take their responsibility for the global environment seriously. Yet, the many terms and expressions that she used to describe something quite basic is revealing. There is in fact no legally-relevant duty of states to care for Earth. As bizarre as it may sound, States have no enforceable obligation under international law to protect the natural environment, either domestically or globally. They may choose to do so, but they are not legally required."