WELLINGTON, April 19 (Xinhua) -- An environmental report released on Thursday found New Zealand is damaging and losing soils and native plants and animals.
The report, published by the Ministry for the Environment and New Zealand's statistics department Stats NZ, helped track the positive and negative impacts of human activities over time, and identify some of the key challenges, Government Statistician Liz MacPherson said.
"There are significant gaps in our knowledge and the available data, especially integrated data at a national scale," MacPherson said.
Key findings from the report show that New Zealand's soil is affected by erosion and intensive agriculture. About 192 million tons of soil are lost every year from erosion, 44 percent of which is from pasture.
Nearly 83 percent of our native birds, bats, reptiles, and frogs are classified as threatened or at risk of extinction between 2010 and 2016, it said, adding that as well as loss of native vegetation across the country, coastal and lowland habitats continued to reduce.
"This report also reinforces that our land-use decisions are putting our environment under pressure," said Penny Nelson, the environmental ministry's deputy secretary, adding that what people do on the land affects water quality, the marine environment, and the volume of greenhouse gas emissions.
