Community views about plant and animal pests
In 2006, Environment Waikato surveyed people living in the Waikato to find out their awareness of, attitudes to and actions about environmental issues and what they valued about living in the Waikato region. Find out what the Waikato community thinks about the region's plant and animal pests.
Our survey found that people in the Waikato thought that water pollution, air pollution and waste disposal were the top three important environmental issues facing the region today. In 2003, animal and plant pests were considered to be the second most important environmental issue facing the region (8 per cent), but by 2006 it was ranked eleventh with only two per cent naming them. Five percent told us plant and animal pests were their next most important issue.
Sixty-two per cent of Waikato people said that they were concerned about the state of native bush and wetlands on private property. The levels of concern (62 per cent) and unconcern (33 per cent) increased from 2000 as the community's views become more polarised on this issue.
What people are doing
People told us they are doing a range of activities to protect the environment. In this survey three per cent of people said they had killed weeds and two per cent that they had killed animal pests in the previous twelve months. The number of people naming these actions has declined since 2003 when six per cent and five per cent respectively named these actions.
People’s environmental attitudes
Our survey shows that Waikato people generally have strong positive attitudes towards the environment:
- There's strong community support for regulations and for the protection of the environment over the economy.
- Most people support the statements that 'government restrictions on the use of private property are necessary so that the environment will not be harmed' and that 'council should enforce its rules and laws to make sure that the environment is well looked after'.
- Fifty-three percent of Waikato people do not believe that landowners should be able to do what they want on their land.
More information
Find out more about the views of Waikato people on the region’s:
For more results from this survey check out our indicators of communities and their views or contact us if you’d like more information about our survey.
Find out more about plant and animal pests in the Waikato region.
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.