Tools and guidelines
In making choices about the management and use of natural resources we need good information. Good information can help to identify our environmental impacts, set realistic targets, assess progress and objectively weigh economic and environmental values.
A great deal of environmental information is collected across New Zealand. Central and local government agencies, Crown Research Institutes, universities, businesses, iwi, and other researchers collect information to assist environmental decision-making, and to satisfy international reporting requirements (eg, ozone and climate change agreements, and reporting to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)).
The Ministry for the Environment does not have its own environmental monitoring capability, but it does play an important coordinating role so that we can compare information from different parts of the country and aggregate it at the national level.
To gain maximum value from our environmental information the Ministry’s work programme includes:
- environmental indicators, which are used to report on the state or quality of the environment
- classification systems, which define and describe environments, allowing like environments to be compared
- monitoring and reporting guidelines to assist other agencies in the collection and management of environmental information.
