Reporting on New Zealand’s Environment

1 Introduction

2 Context

3 First Things First – What is Environmental Reporting and Who Does it?

4 What We Are Doing – The Ministry’s Environmental Reporting Programme

5 Meeting External Expectations

6 The Principles that Shape the Programme

7 Conclusion

Appendix 1: New Zealand’s Core National Environmental Indicators

Appendix 2: Criteria for Selecting Environmental Indicators

Appendix 3: Proposed Schedule for Reporting on Indicators

Appendix 4: Proposed Frequency of Indicator Reporting

Appendix 4: Proposed Frequency of Indicator Reporting

Table A4 below shows the frequency of reporting on the national environmental indicators. The availability of data is the primary driver for determining the frequency of reporting. Cost and difficulty of data retrieval and collation, and the time required to produce national data-sets are two key factors in determining data availability.

More frequent reporting is not possible because of the long period of monitoring. More frequent monitoring is not warranted given that little change in the distribution of the indicator species is expected at the national level over a lesser time period.

Table A4: Proposed frequency of indicator reporting

Domain	National environmental indicator	Proposed frequency
Consumption	Household consumption expenditure	Annual, from 2009
Transport	Vehicle-kilometres travelled (VKT)	Annual, from 2009
Energy	Energy supply	Annual, from 2009
	Energy demand	Annual, from 2009
Waste	Solid waste disposal	Annual, after National Waste Levy data becomes available
Air	Air quality	Annual (web-based reporting occurs now)
Atmosphere	Greenhouse gases	Annual
	Stratospheric ozone	Five-yearly
Land	Land cover	Depending on data availability
	Land use	Depending on data availability
	Soil health	Depending on data availability
	Erosion risk	Depending on data availability
Fresh water	River water quality	2–3 yearly
	Lake water quality	2–3 yearly
	Groundwater quality	2–3 yearly
	Recreational water quality	Annual (web-based reporting occurs now)
	Freshwater demand	2–3 yearly
Oceans	Marine protected areas	Annual
	Fishing activity	Annual, from 2009
	Coastal recreational water quality	Annual (web-based reporting occurs now)
Biodiversity	Native land cover	Depending on data availability
	Indicator species	5–10 yearly, depending on data availability

 

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