Most New Zealanders have a warped idea of how clean the country's lakes and rivers are, wrongly believing they are not that polluted, a major study has revealed.
Lincoln University has released its latest environmental perception survey which shows confusion around just how well New Zealand's fresh water, native forest, beaches and marine fisheries do on the world stage.
The survey, the only long-running study of its type in the world, showed New Zealanders consistently believe environmental management in general is "good", and better than in other developed countries.
They rank beaches and coastal areas as the cleanest areas in the country.
But in one of the most dramatic changes in the survey's 10-year history, Kiwis have fully grasped the concept that farming is one of the major causes of damage to fresh water.
The numbers recognising this problem have doubled since 2000.
Scientists are concerned by results suggesting most think rivers and lakes, marine fisheries and wetlands are in a good state, and that environmental management is improving all the time.
Mike Joy, director of Massey University's Centre for Freshwater Ecosystem Management and Modelling, said New Zealanders have been "confused" by an often-quoted Yale University study which ranks the country's waterways the second cleanest in the world.
"The fact is that the Yale study is flawed in many ways and now they have been given the correct information we will see that New Zealand will drop a long way down the rankings next year," Dr Joy said.
While the considerably lower ranking will shock people, he hopes the new negative perception will actually force more action for environmental improvement.
"Hopefully this will result in increasing pressure on government to act to reduce the declines given the crucial importance of New Zealand's clean green image," the specialist said.
NZN