New Zealand – a special environment

Our environment and people

New Zealand’s geographic isolation and long period without human habitation allowed a unique natural environment to fl ourish. Our environment is known for the richness of its biodiversity, with more than 80,000 native animal, plant, and fungus species. As a result of New Zealand’s isolation, much of our fl ora and fauna are not found anywhere else on earth.

Humans are relatively recent additions to the New Zealand environment. The Polynesian ancestors of Mäori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) arrived here about 30 generations ago, with European settlement only occurring in the late 18th century. Today, New Zealand is home to just over 4 million people, with an average age of 36 years.

Most New Zealanders live in urban areas within 50 kilometres of the coast. Three out of four of us live in the North Island. While our overall population density is low, it is high in major urban areas. New Zealand’s demography and the way it is changing have implications for both the way we live our lives, and the impact of our lifestyles on the environment.

New Zealanders’ relationship with the environment is a defining feature of our national identity. We frequently use images of our natural scenery and rural heritage to present New Zealand to the rest of the world. Mäori have a particular relationship with the environment as tangata whenua (people of the land).

Increasingly, New Zealanders perceive the environment to be not only our iconic wilderness and rural areas, but also the urban areas where most of us live and work.

New Zealand’s natural environment is fundamental to our economic and social well-being. Our stunning landscapes, forests, and productive agricultural and horticultural land generate a signifi cant part of New Zealand’s wealth. Careful stewardship of our natural landscapes and resources is therefore important: both tourism and our primary production sectors rely on New Zealand’s ‘clean and green’ reputation internationally.

Safeguarding the environment for future generations is becoming increasingly important to New Zealanders. Many of us are taking action to conserve the environment for future generations in ways that protect our economic well-being, social systems, and cultural wealth.

Geography

New Zealand’s land area of about 270,000 km2 is about the same as that of Japan or the United Kingdom. Our location on the boundary of the Pacifi c and Indo-Australian tectonic plates has shaped our landforms. The resulting earth movements have produced hilly and mountainous terrain over two-thirds of the land, with frequent earthquakes in most parts of the country and a zone of volcanic and geothermal activity in the central North Island. New Zealand’s terrain, climate, rock type, and vegetation have interacted to produce more than a hundred different soil types. Despite this diversity, our soils are generally low in nutrients because the rocks they come from are geologically young. 

Flora and fauna

Among New Zealand’s most notable species are the:

  • kiwi, which lays one of the largest eggs in the world compared with its body size
  • käkäpö, the world’s heaviest and only flightless parrot
  • kea, one of the world’s only mountain parrots
  • giant wëtä, the heaviest insect
  • tuatara, a reptile of prehistoric origins
  • giant kauri tree, which is among the largest in the world and holds the record for the greatest timber volume of any tree.

While most of the world’s ferns grow in tropical climates, New Zealand hosts an unusually large number of ferns for a temperate country. Primeval trees, mosses, and lichens continue to flourish here, and fl ightless, ground-dwelling birds have evolved to fill niches that elsewhere in the world would have been taken by mammals. Indeed, New Zealand’s only endemic land-based mammal is the bat, of which we have several species. By comparison with other countries, we have comparatively few native flowering plants and land-based vertebrate animals.

Climate

New Zealand’s climate is influenced strongly by geographic factors. These include:

  • its location in a latitude zone with prevailing westerly winds
  • the large area of surrounding ocean
  • mountain chains that modify weather systems as they move eastward, so that climatic contrasts are much sharper from west to east than they are from north to south
  • tropical weather patterns (that is, storms that start out as tropical cyclones elsewhere can redevelop in the region, bringing warm moisture-laden tropical air that interacts with colder polar air).

As a result of these factors, New Zealand’s weather is more variable than that of larger, continental countries.

Rivers and lakes

Dynamic tectonic movement means New Zealand’s landscape is dominated by mountains: more than three-quarters of our land area is higher than 200 metres above sea level. As a result, steep and fast-fl owing stony streams and rivers dissect the landscape. Rivers also feed numerous lakes, of which 3,820 are more than 1 hectare in area. Most lakes were formed through volcanic or glacial activity, or after the formation of land barriers. Lake Taupö in the North Island is New Zealand’s largest lake, with an area of about 62,000 hectares and a maximum depth of 163 metres. As well as having numerous mountains, lakes, rivers, and geothermal areas, New Zealand has 360 glaciers in the South Island, which carry away snow and ice from the many peaks of the Southern Alps.

Coasts and oceans Compared with its land area, New Zealand has one of the longest coastlines of any country in the world, at more than 18,000 kilometres. New Zealand’s vast marine area contains a diverse range of marine ecosystems, which provide habitats for many species. Scientists have identifi ed almost 16,000 marine species in New Zealand waters, although it is estimated that tens of thousands of species may still be undiscovered.

 

Document reproduced with thanks from Ministry for the Environment