Choosing futures Waikato

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People's satisfaction with the environment Key points What agencies are doing What you can do to help More information What we want to achieve Key points Environment Waikato needs to understand how satisfied people are with their environment, and with certain aspects of the environment. Information from our survey guides us in setting goals and planning to improve the environment. It also helps us provide environmental education programmes to fill information gaps. In 1998, 2000, 2003 and 2006 Environment Waikato surveyed randomly chosen adults living in the Waikato region to ask what their levels of satisfaction with their local environments were. On average, most people remain satisfied with their local environments. In 2006 most people (89 per cent) were moderately or highly satisfied with their environment. In 2006 the average regional score was 6.28 - where 1 is ‘completely unsatisfactory’ and 10 is ‘perfect in every way’. This is only slightly lower than in 1998, 2000 and 2003 – when the average was 6.5, 6.42 and 6.32 respectively. Source: Environment Waikato What agencies are doing Every three years, we run a telephone survey of over 1000 people in the region to find out what people’s concerns are, what they know about, what actions they take, and the attitudes they hold towards the environment. Environment Waikato aims to raise the public’s awareness of the environment so that people understand that the daily actions in their lives and business can affect the environment. We keep in contact with major resource users and other resource management agencies, such as district councils, to make sure they know about the community’s concerns, values and expectations for their environment. What you can do to help Find out more about your local environment (for example join environmental groups). Get involved in environmental issues (for example make a submission on a plan). Join or form a Landcare group in your area. More information More detail on this indicator, including how and where this information is collected, is available here. What we want to achieve The community outcome we are seeking to achieve by measuring people’s satisfaction with the environment is: We are aware of what we need to do to look after our environment. Our region is renowned for linking environmental awareness with community action.