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

The scope of the Ministry’s environmental reporting programme is shown diagrammatically in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The Ministry’s environmental reporting programme

As the diagram shows, the programme delivers a wide range of information products: environmental statistics, environmental reports, survey data and other quantitative information.

The function of the programme is to:

provide accessible, high-quality information on the state of the environment. National-scale reporting shows up significant trends in the environment across the whole country, as well as how widespread the changes or pressures are and how fast they are occurring. It therefore provides important context for decision-makers setting national level policies
support national sustainable development reporting in New Zealand. The national environmental reporting programme will provide key support to national-scale sustainable development reporting. It is important that the ‘environmental pillar’ sits strongly alongside the economic, social and cultural pillars delivered by the Ministries of Economic Development, Social Development and Culture and Heritage
report New Zealand’s environmental performance internationally. Meeting international reporting obligations is a key objective of the national environmental reporting programme. For New Zealand to be a good international citizen, it must regularly report on its environmental performance to both the OECD and the United Nations
improve the quality, consistency and coverage of environmental data in New Zealand. The national environmental reporting programme produces a range of good practice guidance and national guidelines on environmental monitoring and data management, works alongside Statistics New Zealand to identify and respond to major data gaps, and brings together key players to network and develop collaborative approaches on issues of mutual interest.

A family of products

As part of its environmental reporting programme, the Ministry is delivering a range of products for a range of audiences.

Reporting products include:

a comprehensive state of the environment report every five years
a series of environmental ‘report cards’ for the 22 national environmental indicators
independent reviews (eg, A review of the Environment New Zealand 2007 Report)
periodic technical or data reporting (eg, dairying catchment water quality report, air quality reporting)
occasional environmental surveys (eg, RMA Survey of Local Authorities, Solid Waste Audits for Ministry for the Environment Waste Data Programme)
national guidelines and best practice guidance
provision of data and reports to international bodies (eg, OECD).

Table 1 shows the level of detail provided in each of these reporting products. The level is tailored to the intended readership, with level 1 providing the greatest level of detail, through to level 5, which provides non-technical high-level information.

Table 1: Environmental reporting products

Level	Product	Content	Audience(s)
Level 1	Periodic technical or data reporting Occasional environmental surveys	Domain-specific data-rich technical reports	Informed community of interest
	National guidelines and best practice guidance	Technical specifications for monitoring and data collection	Councils and other practitioners involved in environmental monitoring
	Environment NZ 2007 – A Technical Guide to the National Environmental Indicators	Detailed technical information on the national environmental indicators	Councils and other practitioners involved in environmental monitoring
	Provision of data to international bodies	Detailed information on specific national environmental indicators	International agencies
Level 2	Environment New Zealand 2007	Information on all indicators across all domains Includes some technical content	Informed community of interest General public
Level 2	A review of the Environment New Zealand 2007 Report	Independent review findings	Informed community of interest General public
Level 3	Environment New Zealand 2007 – Summary report Environmental report cards	Overview information for all indicators across all domains Includes some technical content	Informed community of interest General public
Level 4	Interactive web pages Newsletter	High-level information with some technical content	Informed community of interest General public
Level 5	Fact sheets Conference screens Posters	Brief plain English information and latest news	General public

Links to other work

The Ministry’s environmental reporting programme draws from and builds on related work carried out by the Ministry and by others:

a review of state of the environment reporting by members of the OECD
comparisons of New Zealand’s national environmental indicators and:
- the OECD core set of environmental indicators
- environmental indicators within the United Nations’ set of sustainable development indicators
a review of regional state of the environment reporting in New Zealand
a comparison of other (non-environmental) national indicator reporting programmes and indicator sets within New Zealand.
analysis of how the research, science and technology system might better support national-scale state of the environment reporting in New Zealand
data stocktakes for the set of national environmental indicators and their associated variables
the draft Domain Plan for the Environment, a joint Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand document, which establishes a shared understanding of priorities for environmental statistics.

How the Ministry will know if its environmental reporting is successful

The Ministry will know if its environmental reporting is useful, fact-based and timely if:

it uses the information internally, to drive its own strategic policy choices
external stakeholders use it to inform their policy and operational decisions
environmental reporting products developed by the Ministry are fit for purpose
environmental data and information flows freely between all agencies involved.

Outside the scope

The Ministry’s national environmental reporting programme specifically excludes several indicators and datasets as summarised below.

Social, economic and heritage indicators

National social, economic and heritage indicators are already reported as part of national programmes run by the Ministries of Social Development, Economic Development and Culture and Heritage.

Sustainable development indicators

National reporting on sustainable development, or against a set of national sustainable development indicators, is included in a programme run by Statistics New Zealand, discussed further in section 5.

Culturally based environmental indicators

Reporting on culturally based environmental indicators will not be part of the programme until national-scale data or data with a wide geographic spread is available. At present, only Ngāi Tahu regularly and formally reports against a set of culturally based environmental indicators as part of its takiwā (territory) monitoring programme.

The Ministry supports the development and use of culturally based environmental indicators, such as those used to report on the cultural health of New Zealand’s fresh waters. Until national-scale data is available, case studies will continue to be used to report the results from quantitative cultural health monitoring.

Sub-national datasets

The Ministry’s criteria for selecting indicators excludes sub-national data sets. These criteria are described in Appendix 2.

Keeping work on track and up to date

Because the national environmental reporting programme is a long-term programme, it may need to evolve to reflect changes in reporting priorities, resources and available data.

The Ministry will therefore regularly review and update the programme to ensure it remains relevant in the medium term.

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