Every year tourists reach New Zealand to discover its unspoiled natural landscapes, but the situation is changing.
A report on New Zealand’s environment state has painted a catastrophic scenario, with biodiversity loss, polluted waterways and the destructive rise of the dairy industry and urban sprawl.
“Environment Aotearoa” found that New Zealand is now considered one of the richest countries in terms of biodiversity, but 75 animal and plant species having gone extinct since human settlement. The once-vibrant bird life has fared particularly badly, with 90% of seabirds and 80% of shorebirds threatened with or at risk of extinction.
Almost two-thirds of New Zealand’s rare ecosystems are under threat of collapse, and over the last 15 years the extinction risk worsened for 86 species. The report has been compiled using data from Statistics New Zealand and the Ministry of Environment over the past four years.
Kevin Hague from the conservation group “Forest and Bird” said that the report was chilling reading and captured the devastating affects of «decades of procrastination and denial». «Four thousand of our native species are in trouble – he said – we are irreversibly harming our natural world».
«We must not waste any more time in fundamentally changing the way we interact with nature, – he explained – we need an economy that nurtures and restores our environment, not one that trashes it».
A dramatic vision came by the Environment minister, David Parker, who said: «If, with all our advantages, New Zealand can’t overcome its environmental problems, then the world won’t».
The Green party co-leader James Shaw, who is also the minister for Climate change, said the environment was taking a further hammering with the effects of global warming starting to be felt, including sea-level rise, increasing land temperatures and warming ocean temperatures.
A report on New Zealand’s environment state has painted a catastrophic scenario, with biodiversity loss, polluted waterways and the destructive rise of the dairy industry and urban sprawl.
“Environment Aotearoa” found that New Zealand is now considered one of the richest countries in terms of biodiversity, but 75 animal and plant species having gone extinct since human settlement. The once-vibrant bird life has fared particularly badly, with 90% of seabirds and 80% of shorebirds threatened with or at risk of extinction.
Almost two-thirds of New Zealand’s rare ecosystems are under threat of collapse, and over the last 15 years the extinction risk worsened for 86 species. The report has been compiled using data from Statistics New Zealand and the Ministry of Environment over the past four years.
Kevin Hague from the conservation group “Forest and Bird” said that the report was chilling reading and captured the devastating affects of «decades of procrastination and denial». «Four thousand of our native species are in trouble – he said – we are irreversibly harming our natural world».
«We must not waste any more time in fundamentally changing the way we interact with nature, – he explained – we need an economy that nurtures and restores our environment, not one that trashes it».
A dramatic vision came by the Environment minister, David Parker, who said: «If, with all our advantages, New Zealand can’t overcome its environmental problems, then the world won’t».
The Green party co-leader James Shaw, who is also the minister for Climate change, said the environment was taking a further hammering with the effects of global warming starting to be felt, including sea-level rise, increasing land temperatures and warming ocean temperatures.
Show Comments