Mapping the values of New Zealand's coastal waters. 1. Environmental Values. Biosecurity New Zealand technical paper no: 2008/16 

Beaumont, J., Oliver, M., and MacDiarmid, A/ 

2008 

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry 

 

Report 

An estimated 65,000 marine species and associated ecosystems around New Zealand deliver a wide range of environmental services that sustain considerable fishing, aquaculture and tourism industries as well as driving major biogeochemical processes. However, New Zealand’s marine ecosystems are increasingly at risk of, or already experiencing, threat from anthropogenic impacts. One the greatest threats is the introduction of non-indigenous species. The extent of the threat imposed by an actual or potential incursion of an alien marine species will vary depending on the species, habitat(s), ecosystem(s) or human use of the marine environment. Determining the actual or perceived values of an ecosystem or its sub-components and utilising this information to prioritise management is an effective method to aid biosecurity management and decision-making. However, to date there has been no attempt to map or estimate the value of New Zealand’s marine environment in a consistent or comprehensive way. This study to map the perceived measures of environmental value is one of four projects (environmental, social, economic and cultural) assessing the perceived values of New Zealand’s coastal marine environment for MAF/BNZ for use in a Decision Support Tool. Through the collation of both existing datasets and expert knowledge, a spatially-explicit database of marine environmental value has been created. This database comprises 14 attributes of marine environmental measures derived from 200 unique layers of environmental information, ranging from species occurrences and diversity indices to marine mammal breeding areas and habitat distribution. All environmental measures have been quantified to allow comparison between different areas around New Zealand and its outlying islands. Using a Geographic Information System, this database can be used to identify areas particularly susceptible to marine incursion events through the identification of areas rich in rare species or with many coincident high or low estimated values of diversity. In addition, this study has highlighted large areas of the New Zealand coastline that are data sparse and where future research efforts should be directed. This research is likely to have a broad range of marine conservation, planning and management benefits. 

Biodiversity, Socio-economic 

Environmental values, New Zealand, GIS mapping, biodiversity indices, taxon specific diversity, delphic process, indigenous species, non-indigenous species, at risk species, threatened species, primary productivity, marine mammal, distribution, marine protected areas, area-based restrictions, modeling 

Beaumontetal2008Mapping_NZcoastal_waters_envtal_values.pdf