Environmental reporting
- Environmental information: The Ministry reports to the Government and New Zealanders on the health of our environment. Reliable national-scale information is important for setting national environmental policies and standards, and identifying emerging environmental issues. It can also help decision-makers identify where more effort is needed.
- National Environmental Reporting Programme: Fundamental to the Ministry’s work, particularly in setting environmental policy, the programme delivers a wide range of information products: environmental statistics, environmental reports, survey data and other quantitative information.
- Tools and guidelines: The Ministry develops tools and guidelines to encourage consistent, high-quality and comprehensive monitoring of New Zealand’s environment.
- Partnerships: The Ministry’s partnerships with other agencies to locate, use and share environmental information are crucial to our ability to produce environmental statistics.
- Surveys and monitoring: The Ministry carries out a variety of surveys and monitoring when other data sources are not available.
State of the environment reporting
- State of the environment report: Every five years, the Ministry produces a national-scale state of the environment report using a set of national environmental indicators to present information on key aspects of our environment. The second national state of the environment report, Environment New Zealand 2007, was released on 31 January 2008.
- Environmental indicators: New Zealand’s national environmental reporting programme uses 22 core environmental indicators comprising 66 national datasets to measure and report on the overall health of New Zealand’s environment and track how this has changed over time.
- Environmental report cards: These regular web-based report cards provide updates on environmental data in between each five-yearly state of the environment report. They cover 10 domains: air, atmosphere, biodiversity, energy, fresh water, household consumption, land, oceans, road transport, and waste.
Other reporting
- International reporting: The Ministry also contributes to New Zealand's international reporting to bodies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and United Nations. In particular, the Ministry leads work across government relating to the OECD's review of New Zealand's environmental performance.
- Technical reports: National scale state of environment reporting draws on data and information from background technical reports.
New Zealand's ten domains
The Ministry reports on the environment through ten domains. There are 22 national environmental indicators covering these domains. Each indicator has a set of variables, making 66 national environmental datasets.
Last updated: 24 August 2009
