Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN NEW ZEALAND
Employing images of untouched landscapes, Tourism New Zealand's 100% Pure marketing campaign has been
critically acclaimed, and is the envy of tourism organisations worldwide. Such portrayals of a pristine environ-
ment have, however, been repeatedly rumbled in recent years as environmentalists - and the media - place NZ's
'clean green' credentials under the microscope. Mining, offshore oil and gas exploration, pollution, biodiversity
loss, conservation funding cuts and questionable urban planning - there have been endless hooks for bad-news
stories, and numerous reasons to protest.
A 2013 university study found that New Zealanders rate water quality as the country's most serious environ-
mental issue. Their concern is well founded, with one-third of NZ's 425 lakes, rivers and beaches deemed unsafe
for swimming; research from diverse quarters confirms that the health of NZ's waterways is in serious decline.
The primary culprit is 'dirty dairying' - cow effluent leaching into freshwater ecosystems, carrying with it high
levels of nitrates, as well as bacteria and parasites such as E. coli and giardia.
The dairy industry is NZ's biggest export earner, and it continues to boom with more land being converted,
despite clear evidence of its detrimental effects, which include the generation of half of NZ's greenhouse gas
emissions. Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright, has referred to the matter as a 'classic
economy versus environment dilemma'. NZ's dominant dairy cooperative - Fonterra - has expressed a commit-
ment to upping its game to ensure farm management practices 'preserve New Zealand's clean green image'; some
farmers are indeed cleaning up their act.
There are many other threats to water and land ecosystems, including proliferation of invasive weeds and pests,
with biodiversity loss continuing in parallel. The worst offenders are possums, stoats and rats, which chomp
through swathes of forest and kill wildlife, particularly birds. Controversy rages at the Department of Conserva-
tion's use of 1080 poison (sodium fluoroacetate) to control these pests, despite it being sanctioned by prominent
environmental groups such as Forest & Bird and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Vehe-
ment opposition to 1080 is expressed by such diverse camps as hunters and animal-rights activists, who cite detri-
ments such as by-kill and the poison's transmittal into waterways.
This is just one of DOC's increasing range of duties, which includes processing applications for mining within
the conservation estate. Public feeling runs high on this issue, too, as demonstrated by recent ructions over open-
cast coalmining on the West Coast's Denniston Plateau. DOC has increasingly found itself in the thick of it; at the
same time as budget cuts and major internal restructuring have left it appearing thinner on the ground.
Meanwhile, NZ's principle legislation governing the NZ environment - the 1991 Resource Management Act -
is undergoing controversial reforms suspected of opening the door to further exploitation of the environment.
NGOs and community groups - ever-vigilant and already making major contributions to the welfare of NZ's en-
vironment - will find plenty to keep them occupied in the years to come.
Sarah Bennett & Lee Slater
