Community views about the environment
In 2006, Environment Waikato surveyed people living in the Waikato to find out their awareness of, attitudes to and actions about environmental issues.
The pie graph shows what people thought about changes in the Waikato's environment over the last few years. Only one third of people said there were positive changes in their local environment (much or a little better). A similar number of people to the last survey (22 per cent) thought their environment had got worse. This has increased from 12 percent in 1998 and 16 percent in 2000 but is the same as in 2003.
The top environmental issues for people in the Waikato were:
- Water Pollution - 45 per cent
- Waste Disposal - 13 per cent
- Air Pollution - 9 per cent
- General Pollution - 4 per cent
- Transport - 3 per cent
- Sprays and Pesticides - 2 per cent
- Erosion/deforestation/preserving the natural environment - 2 per cent
- Electricity/power generation/energy supply - 2 per cent
- Natural Hazards (including flooding) - 2 per cent
- Town Planning and Population Increase - 2 per cent
- Other - 14 percent (includes a range of issues mentioned by 1 per cent or less, for example the ozone layer and global warming).
Use our map to see which were the top three environmental issues that were important to Waikato residents living in each district council area.
More people than in our previous surveys reported taking action to help the environment in the last year by:
- recycling and reusing waste
- composting
- reducing the amount they consumed of various items (chemicals, electricity, water, fuel and packaging)
- planting trees.
Find out more about actions you can take to help the environment. For more results from this survey check out our indicators of communities and their views.
Some environmental issues are complex, or people disagree about them. For example how to strike a balance between economic growth and environmental protection. Most people agreed that a healthy economy depends on a healthy environment. Find out more about how our economy depends on the goods and services - ecosystem services - our environment provides.
Want to know how Taupo residents feel about their Lake? Find out key results from the Taupo residents’ survey.
Results presented are from: Environment Waikato and Gravitas Research and Strategy Ltd. 2007: Environmental awareness, attitudes and actions, 2006: a survey of residents of the Waikato Region. Prepared for Environment Waikato. Environment Waikato Technical Report 2007/06. Environment Waikato, Hamilton.