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Findings of the Rio+10 community programme

Our environment is not as healthy as it should be, said more than three-quarters of the 3,588 people who sent back response forms to the Rio+10 community programme. One-fifth suggested that the environment needs intensive care.

Two-thirds thought New Zealand had not made a strong-enough commitment to dealing with environmental issues in the past 10 years. Only one-fifth said that enough had been done.

Having healthy streams, lakes and rivers is clearly a major concern for New Zealanders. It was rated the top priority for action and second highest of the issues where progress was not regarded as satisfactory. This response mirrors the findings of the recent International Social Survey Programme research on public attitudes to the environment carried out by Massey University. In that survey, 94.6 percent rated water pollution in rivers, lakes and at beaches as a serious or very serious issue.

About one-third of you said that satisfactory progress had been made on reducing waste, managing toxic chemicals, protecting biodiversity, and energy efficiency, though about a quarter of respondents were not happy with progress. Global warming, healthy streams, rivers and lakes, and clean air were seen by the majority as issues where progress had been unsatisfactory.

You were asked to nominate your top two choices for who needs to do more on environmental issues. Opinion was divided, with 53 percent nominating central government, 50 percent picking councils, and 42 percent each for households and business. Overall, the message was that we all need to do more.

The following graphs summarise the responses to the questions in the response form:

Some different perspectives

There were some variations in the responses from particular age groups and regions.

If you are under 18, you were more likely to rate our environment as healthy (26 percent compared with a 12 percent average). You were less likely to be unhappy with progress on particular issues and less likely to give a high priority to action on most issues. But you were more likely to think that Kiwis would do more to sustain our environment.

Reducing waste was a high priority for those 18-30 years old. If you are 30 to 60 years old, you were more likely to rate our urban quality of life as getting worse. Those over 60 saw progress on a wide range of issues as unsatisfactory, and gave high priority to improving management of toxic chemicals.

Some regional variations also showed up. Because there were only a few responses from some regions, we have grouped the findings into upper North Island, lower North Island and South Island.

The upper North Island, which covers Northland, Auckland and Waikato, gave us 40 percent of the responses. The rest of the North Island produced 36 percent of the sample. The South Island sent in 20 percent of the responses (four percent did not indicate their region).

If you live in the upper North Island you were more likely to express concern about air pollution, waste, clean beaches and coastal water, and urban quality of life. In the lower North Island, people were more likely to be concerned about climate change. South Islanders were more likely to be concerned about healthy streams, rivers and lakes, healthy soils, protecting biodiversity, and pests and weeds.

Comments and ideas

The 80 more detailed responses we received commented on New Zealand’s clean, green image and the reality behind it, our vision, the environmental problems and what needs to be done, as well as putting forward a range of useful ideas. Many of the ideas were about education and increasing people's understanding about our environment.

The most common comment was that New Zealand’s clean, green image is not matched by the reality. While people recognised that New Zealand is still relatively clean compared with other countries, this was regarded as more good luck than good management. People also recognised that some good things are happening - but not enough of them and not fast enough. Many 'hot spots' or local problems were identified.

The view came through clearly that New Zealanders are not sufficiently aware of how each of us may be contributing to environmental problems or could contribute to the solutions. Complacency and the Kiwi “she’ll be right” attitude were identified as barriers to awareness and action. Education, particularly education in schools, was seen as a key to making a difference. Many other ideas, ranging from viable markets for recycled material to using fodder trees instead of irrigation in drought-prone areas, were suggested.

It’s not too late, people said. Our small population and the fact that we are an island nation means we still have an opportunity to really become “clean and green” if we choose to do so.

Last updated: 17 September 2007