Prioritising environmental issues
This page provides guidance about how councils can determine what their environmental issues are and find information about these issues.
The Ministry for the Environment holds meetings in all regions as part of its annual Talk Environment Roadshow. Local govenment and the public take the chance to talk with us about the environment and local environmental issues. You can read the feedback we got in your region for 2004 and 2005 via the Talk Environment Roadshow page.
Use these pages to find more information about environmental issues and current Ministry projects.
- Air quality
- Aquaculture
- Biodiversity
- Climate change
- Energy
- Land
- Resource management
- Sustainability
- Sustainable industry
- Transport
- Treaty and iwi issues
- Urban issues
- Waste
- Water
A good source of local environmental information is your regional council. Regional councils can provide advice about local environmental issues in their regional policy statements (prepared under the Resource Management Act 1991). The regional policy statements and your regional council's LTCCP may help to provide a regional context to environmental issues. They may also provide strategies to help deal with specific issues and achieve environmental outcomes. Collectively the councils in your region should identify shared regional outcomes.
Environmental Outcomes
National environmental issues may not be reflected in your communities' idea of environmental wellbeing. Most people have views about what is right and wrong in their environment and how to fix them. What you need to do is shift the focus away from issues and solutions to identifying the ideal characteristics of the environment.
Most communities will agree on very general outcomes such as "a healthy environment" or "clean air and water". To prioritise the issues ask your community to consider the characteristics and boundaries of the outcome. Ask questions such as:
- What does a healthy environment look like?
- What does clean air and water look like?
- How do we know when we have achieved the outcome?
- What is the definition of a healthy environment?
These answers will help you link up council activities to environmental outcomes.
The table below is a typical example:
| Outcome | Parameters |
|---|---|
| A healthy environment | Plentiful flora and fauna |
| Ability to collect mahinga kai | |
| Lots of accessible green spaces | |
| No rubbish | |
| Clean air and water | Fish in the streams and sea |
| Invisible air | |
| High quality drinking water | |
| You can safely swim anywhere |
Where to from here?
Click on the shapes or text below to continue.
Planning for and identifying community outcomes
Monitoring environmental outcomes
Back to Promoting environvental wellbeing
Last updated: 27 February 2008
