Horizons Regional Council has released Te Oranga o te Taiao State of the Environment: Horizons Region 2025, a comprehensive environmental data synthesis report that outlines the current state and trends of the region’s air, land, and water.
The report also identifies the key influences shaping environmental outcomes in the region and highlights the challenges and opportunities associated with ensuring the health and wellbeing of the environment.
“One of our core functions as a regional council is to provide a comprehensive and reliable evidence base to guide decision-making and policy development that leads to effective environmental stewardship,” says lead author and Horizons science communicator, Rhianne Tod.
“This report aims to facilitate informed conversations, from governance to grassroots, about the key issues at play in the region and actions moving forward. In this respect, the data and insights presented are both markers of where we are and where we’ve come from, as well as signposts guiding us toward where we need to go,” says Ms Tod.
Nature’s contributions to people, also referred to as ‘ecosystem services’, are woven through the report, reflecting a shift to a more holistic way of presenting Horizons’ environmental reporting. This shift aligns with the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s 2019 comments about improving environmental reporting, which emphasised that Council gathers information about the natural environment for the same reason it tracks the economy, education, or public health – because these things are essential to wellbeing.
“The links between nature and people’s wellbeing represent a crucial data and knowledge gap in environmental monitoring, and researchers and policy-makers across the country are investigating how to effectively track them to support decision-making and stewardship of the environment,” says Ms Tod.
One of the ways the report considers this is by featuring the winning and highly commended entries from Horizons’ 2024 Creative Arts Competition, which invited submissions highlighting how the region’s environment contributes to the wellbeing of local people.
“The creative works included in the report showcase the deep personal and cultural connections our communities have with nature and serve as a powerful reminder of the impact of the environment on our wellbeing. These examples of nature’s contributions to people emphasise why everyone across the region is a stakeholder in the environment’s health.”
“The report reaffirms the complexity of the region’s environment and the pressures it faces – it’s not just a backdrop to human activity, but an interconnected system that supports and shapes almost every aspect of our lives.”
A digital copy of the full 59-page report is now available on the Horizons website.
View the full report online: https://www.horizons.govt.nz/HRC/media/Media/State-of-the-Environment-Horizons-Region-2025.pdf
Access a print-friendly version of the report: https://www.horizons.govt.nz/HRC/media/Media/State-of-the-Environment-Horizons-Region-2025-Print.pdf
