Environment 2010 in New Zealand

Kaimai Ranges NZ

In October 1994 the government of New Zealand outlined in its Environment 2010 Strategy, nine environmental issue the country needs to address to be able to claim the status of a “clean green” country. Those issues include biodiversity, ozone, climate change, energy, fisheries, pests and weeds, pollution, land use and water use.

Water issues New Zealand faces include contamination from agricultural stock, preserving high quality fresh costal waters, unsustainable land practices, and changing natural waterways through hydroelectric development.

According to Environment 2010 goals have been set to address these issues:

To manage the quality and quantity of water so that it can meet the current and future needs of ecological systems, communities (including Maori), agriculture and industry by:

• • ensuring surface freshwaters and coastal waters are of a quality suitable to meet national and community needs for swimming, fishing and shellfish gathering, and that aquatic life is not significantly affected by discharges;
  • preventing degradation of quality and flow of identified water resources of national importance to New Zealanders for recreational, scenic, scientific or cultural reasons; and
    
  • retaining sufficient water in water bodies to meet the community’s in-stream recreational and cultural needs, and ecological and other values.