Wellington, April 22 NZPA - New Zealand needs regular national environmental reporting if it wants to keep selling itself as clean and green, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment says.

The need for a National Environmental Reporting Act was urgent, commissioner Dr Jan Wright said in a report tabled in Parliament today.

"Many New Zealanders may be surprised that we have no legislated process for regular national reporting on our environment, but they would be more surprised and concerned to learn we're the only country in the OECD who doesn't," Dr Wright said.

"New Zealand makes a lot of its reputation as a clean and green country, but without systematic state of the environment reporting we are potentially out on a limb in terms of our image and our trade."

The commission recommended that the Minister for the Environment be responsible for drafting legislation over who should report, and how, on the state of the environment to different public entities.

It was important that the agency or agencies responsible for the state of the environment reporting be independent and capable.

Environment Minister Nick Smith welcomed the review.

"National's 2008 election policy was to introduce a new Environment Reporting Act requiring independent five yearly State of the Environment Reports for the very reasons articulated by the Parliamentary Commissioner," Dr Smith said.

"It is telling that New Zealand is the only OECD country without a legislative basis for environment reporting. This is inconsistent with our clean green brand and is on the Government's work programme to be rectified."

Inconsistent data around the country was a problem, although a lot had been updated since the 2008 report.

"Quality environmental reporting is as important to New Zealand's success as financial reporting," Dr Smith said.

"It assists good decision making and helps build a reliable picture of how we are managing our natural capital.

"The Government will be carefully considering the advice in this report in advancing its policy forward."

Poor environmental reporting also contributed to threat of extinction facing the country's endangered species and plants, Forest & Bird said.

"Dozens of our native birds, frogs, bats, freshwater fish and plants are critically threatened," Forest & Bird conservation advocate Quentin Duthie said.

If we don't improve our data on how these species are doing and the threats to them, we will find we're too late to be able to save them."

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