New Zealand’’s faint ecological footprint is held worldwide as clean and green, but some critics argue that the country does not live up to its clean green image. They believe that its marketing strategy, if not anchored in reality, poses dangers for the country.
"New Zealand society is like most Western democracies; it’’s very oriented to be a high consumer society," says Morgan Williams, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, an independent, environmental watchdog. "But that generates all the usual pressures of waste, water consumption, high energy consumption and so on."
Another problem is that New Zealand’’s oceans are being emptied at an alarming rate. The Best Fish Guide, compiled by Forest & Bird, the country’’s leading conservation organization, found that not a single one of New Zealand’’s 68 commercial fisheries was sustainable.
Many native species, including the national bird, the kiwi, are at risk of extinction as non-native species like Australian possums munch (咀嚼) their way through the bush. Agriculture is New Zealand’’s biggest industry, and intensive farming methods are taking their toll with pesticides leaching into the soil and polluting the groundwater. At least two thirds of the native bush and forest has been cleared since the country was discovered by Europeans.
"Green is the color of the leaves," says John Peet, a retired senior lecturer at Canterbury University. "It means the trees are reasonably healthy. It doesn’’t say anything about what’’s going on below. The first European settlers recorded that the forests were alive with deafening bird song. I’’ve only heard two places where the bird song has been anywhere close to deafening."
New Zealand has a lot at stake to keep up its international appearance. The nation’’s exports make up 90 percent of its GDP, and the tourism industry is worth more than $ 1 billion annually. "We’’re a small nation a long way from our market, so we’’re at a disadvantage automatically," says Kevin Hackwell, conservation manager at Forest & Bird. "We have to sell our products at a premium, which we can do if we market them as clean and green."
In fact, New Zealand’’s eco-friendly marketing strategy is so important that the Ministry for the Environment (MFE) commissioned a study, "Valuing New Zealand’’s Clean Green Image." It concluded that if the country’’s environment was perceived as degraded, international consumers would purchase 54 percent less dairy products and tourists would reduce their stay by an average of 68 percent. The study concluded that the country’’s green image "is likely to be worth hundreds of millions, and possibly billions of dollars per year".
Some critics believe that New Zealand fails to________its international image held worldwide.