International environmentalist Sir Tim Smit, the founder of the Eden Project has claimed NZ is like a beautiful person with cancer because of its polluted waterways during a conference in London on Tuesday.
New Zealand's clean, green tourism brand has again received a kicking overseas — this time by a UK public figure who likened the country to a "beautiful person with cancer".
The remarks were made by Sir Tim Smit, an English businessman noted for co-founding The Eden Project: an eco-tourism initiative and educational charity that opened in Cornwall in 2000, and which has since inspired a similar project based in Christchurch's Avonside.
The Herald has been provided an audio recording of Sir Tim speaking at Country Land and Business Association (CLA) Redefining Farming conference, held in Westminster, London, on Tuesday, where he commented on New Zealand's freshwater issues and took a swipe at the dairy industry.
"We are working in the red zone, in Christchurch," he told the audience.
"You know, what is the brand New Zealand guys? You know, it's the oldest advertising thing for a place in the whole of the world — Pure New Zealand.
"It's so pure that the people of Christchurch won't even swim in the River Avon."
Sir Tim claimed to the audience how "most of" New Zealand's lakes were "full of algae".
"It is like a beautiful person with cancer. Why? Because there was no strategy. The only strategy was to satisfy consumers in China with a dairy product, which is ironic for a lactose intolerant people.
"So, with global warming, more rain but focused in a short period of time, loads of nitrates to make the grass grow faster because cattle need it faster than sheep, and all of the nitrates go in the river."
It comes after a series of recent articles and documentaries in major international news outlets highlighting the state of New Zealand's rivers and lakes.
Those included a documentary investigation broadcast by Al Jazeera, titled New Zealand: Polluted Paradise, and a report in the Wall Street Journal that ran under the headline: "In the Land of Milk and Money, Dairy Boom Feeds Environmental Fears".
Sir Tim Smit. Photo / CC
Greenpeace campaigner Gen Toop said Sir Tim comment's were "sadly, absolutely right".
"The tourism industry has already backed calls for a reduction in cow numbers and a removal of state funding for big irrigation."
A Government stocktake published this year found many waterways were now affected by harmful E. coli, and three-quarters of monitored native fish species are nearing extinction.
By 2008, the extent of wetlands was only 10 per cent of what it was before the arrival of humans and, in some areas, this has led to a loss of biodiversity and natural function.
But agriculture wasn't all to blame, with data showing some of the worst water quality could be attributed to urban pollution.
Levels of the harmful bacteria E.coli were 22 times higher in urban areas and nearly 10 times higher in pastoral rivers, compared with rivers in native forest areas.
The report also included dismal trends for two key nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus — that increase the risk of river-choking algal blooms and are often linked to agricultural intensification — worsening at more than half and a quarter of monitored river sites respectively.
Data around nutrient levels showed levels of nitrate-nitrogen in monitored rivers was worsening (55 per cent) at more sites than improving (28 per cent), and dissolved reactive phosphorus was improving (42 per cent) at more sites than worsening (25 per cent) between 1994 and 2013.
Between 2009 and 2013, concentrations of nitrate-nitrogen concentration were 18 times higher in the urban areas, and 10 times higher in the pastoral areas.
Of 175 monitored river sites in the pastoral areas, nitrate-nitrogen trends were worsening at 61 per cent and improving at 22 per cent of sites for the period 1994 to 2013 period.
Other figures in the report showed nitrogen leaching from agricultural soils was estimated to have increased 29 per cent from 1990 to 2012.
But virtually all of New Zealand's total river length — more than 99 per cent — was estimated not to have nitrate-nitrogen concentrations high enough to affect the growth of multiple sensitive freshwater species for the 2009-13 period.
In the same period, dissolved reactive phosphorus concentration was three times higher in the urban areas, and 2.5 times higher in the pastoral areas, compared with the native land.
Of 145 monitored river sites in pastoral areas, trends in dissolved reactive phosphorus were improving at 46 per cent and worsening at 21 per cent of sites between 1994 and 2013.
Similarly, in the urban and native classes more sites were improving than worsening, but few monitored sites were in these classes.
The Government yesterday announced it would invest alongside farmers in a seven-year $21 million research partnership that will boost efforts to clean up rural waterways.
MBie would provide $8.4 million towards the project which aims to tackle nitrogen leaching - one of the main nutrients impacting water quality.
A further $11.5 million will be invested by dairy farmers through the levy they pay to DairyNZ, with additional funding support to make up the $21 million coming from CRV Ambreed and Fonterra.
DairyNZ strategy and investment leader Dr Bruce Thorrold yesterday said the project was of major importance in dairy's drive to lower its environmental footprint, and would be based on large-scale research involving thousands of cows on farms around the country to test the effectiveness of breeding and measure the reduction of nitrogen leaching expected by the change – potentially up to a 20 percent reduction.
"Equally, it is important to the beef and sheep sectors where animals raised for meat also contribute to nitrogen levels. Beef farmers will be able to rear low nitrogen beef cattle bred from dairy herds."
The Eden Project, Dairy NZ and others have been approached for comment over Sir Tim's comments.
