Following the WWF report on the original Rio earth summit, which assessed how New Zealand has lived up to conservation promises made 20 years ago, Element magazine asked readers what they feel are the worst affected areas.
Divided into six sections – marine biodiversity, fisheries, water quality, greenhouse
gas emissions, education for sustainability and land biodiversity – over one
third of voters felt New Zealand’s water quality had seen the biggest demise in
the last two decades.
The water quality promise made in Rio included preserving the aquatic ecosystem and protecting against degradation. But as WWF notes, there have been significant declines in almost all our measured water quality.
The next most concerning sector is greenhouse gas emissions. 19 per cent of voters agreed the failure to introduce significant policies and measures while the country’s greenhouse gas emissions continued to increase is caused the biggest problem.
Education for sustainability was seen as faring the worst by 14 per cent while of equal concern is the state of the country’s fisheries and marine biodiversity.Both areas garnered 12 per cent of votes, followed by the final eight percent who chose land biodiversity as the most neglected area.
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