Environment » Environmental Information » Environmental indicators » Social and economic: monitoring and reporting » People’s public environmental actions
Waikato Regional Council needs to understand what public actions people take to protect the environment. We also need to know what type of activities they undertake and how effective they think their actions are. This will guide us in setting up consultation programmes that encourage people to have their say on environmental issues, as well as setting goals and planning environmental education programmes to fill information gaps.
This indicator monitors:
What's happening?In 2016, 16 per cent of Waikato people carried out public environmental actions in the previous 12 months. Involvement in public actions has decreased over time, with this year's result 10 per cent below results from 1998. Encouragingly, however this year’s result showed a 5 per cent increase from 2013’s result.
In 2016, 43 per cent of respondents thought that the public should have more say in the way the environment is managed. Though slightly lower than previous surveys ranging between 46-48 per cent (and a peak at 56 per cent in 2000) this is the lowest proportion since the survey began in 1998.
In February to March 2016, surveys and interviews with 1,250 people throughout the region told us what public environmental actions people were taking to help the environment. This was a repeat of surveys we ran in June 1998 when we surveyed 1037 people, October to November 2003 when we surveyed 1873 people, September to October 2003 when we surveyed 1822 people, September to October 2006 when 1003 people were surveyed and January to March 2013, when 1005 people were surveyed.
This indicator is updated every three years. The next update is due in 2019.
Social Scientist - Science and Strategy Directorate
