Environmental record panned
NEW ZEALAND’S ‘‘100% Pure’’ branding has taken a further body blow, with the emergence of a top-level and at-times damning overview of our environment.
The Environment Ministry, in a 37- page document, has warned the Government that almost a third of the country’s fisheries were overfished, our biodiversity and conservation record was ‘‘ getting worse’’, greenhouse emissions had soared, and that undesirable changes to our waterways were likely due to intensive land use, most notably farming.
The paper, ‘‘ Environmental Stewardship for a Prosperous New Zealand’’, has also raised concerns about growing demands for fresh water for irrigation in drier regions.
It said levels of nutrients, including nitrate, total nitrogen and dissolved reactive phosphorus, were getting worse.
‘‘ While these increases may seem small, it signals a longterm trend towards nutrientenriched conditions that are likely to trigger undesirable changes to river ecosystems.’’
It said river quality had deteriorated significantly in lowland areas of Northland, Auckland, Waikato, the East Coast, Taranaki, Manawatu- Whanganui, Canterbury, and Southland.
The report added that nutrient levels in New Zealand rivers were ‘‘still low by international standards’’.
The state of fisheries stocks New Zealand’s was marked as ‘‘ performing poorly against national or international benchmark data’’. ‘‘In 2010, 31 per cent of all assessed fish stocks were overfished, compared with 15 per cent in 2007,’’ it said.
The ministry listed New Zealand’s performance in the area of biodiversity, including conservation, as ‘‘mixed or performing averagely against national or international benchmark data’’.
Of all indigenous species, it estimated 5 per cent of vascular plants, 21 per cent of birds, 18 per cent of mammals, 11 per cent of reptiles, and 75 per cent of amphibians threatened.
The report noted that New Zealand’s total greenhouse gas emissions had risen 19.4 per cent between 1991 and 2009, with the Environment Ministry listing that trend as ‘‘performing poorly against national or international benchmark data’’.
The report, obtained by the Sunday Star- Times last week, was penned by the ministry as a briefing document for the Government after the last general election. Earlier in the week the ministry released an additional
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as report which said 24 per cent of selected surveyed waterways were graded poor and 21 per cent very poor for swimming.
The survey was based on data collected by local body officials from rivers, lakes and streams in 2010. All surveyed rivers in Northland and Taranaki were poor or very poor. Southland recorded the next highest level, with 88 per cent of its surveyed rivers poor or very poor.
Following the report’s release, Labour environment spokesman Grant Robertson called on the Government to increase protection of the country’s cherished waterways. ‘‘ New Zealanders should be able to have confidence that most, if not all of our rivers and streams that they swim in are clean,’’ he said.
‘‘Central government has an important role to play in setting the standards for water quality and they have completely dropped the ball. They have let New Zealand down.
‘‘In the last term of government, National gutted the National Policy Statement to such an extent regional councils do not have to adopt water quality standards until 2030. There are no rational standards at all and each council is left to work on its own.
‘‘ New Zealand needs better than a government that is sitting on the sidelines as water quality declines.’’
Environment Minister Amy Adams said the Government took the issue of waterway quality seriously, saying $101 million had been spent on initiatives to clean up lakes, rivers and streams over the past four years.
A further $450m had been set aside over the next 20 years.
Adams said the report should not be read as New Zealand having a ‘‘systematic problem’’ with its waterways, saying councils had specifically looked at waterways where they had quality concerns.