Waste Level Rise? Scales, Spaces and Policies of Waste in New Caledonia

Abstract

New Caledonia is known as one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. However, it began developing its environmental policies and improving operational measures with an eye towards prevention and protection only two decades ago. So far, waste management responsibilities have been shared among the various levels of government (municipalities, provinces and territories) by default, based on other explicitly defined responsibilities, including public hygiene, health, mining, environment and energy. This chapter analyses waste management in New Caledonia in terms of territories and levels of government. Its central hypothesis is that there is tension between increasing waste generation and territorial waste management practices. The first section discusses the qualitative and quantitative evolution of waste during the last two decades. The second section examines the subject of political and territorial responsibility for waste and how the multi-layered web of these responsibilities is constructed. The third and concluding section of this chapter builds on the case of New Caledonia to address future concerns about the Pacific’s cultural politics on waste.