Protecting water catchments
Our rivers and streams are very important aquatic environments in their own right. They also flow into other important aquatic environments: estuaries, bays and the sea. The water that flows in these environments starts as rain falling on the land in our catchments. A catchment is an area of land that drains into a waterway such as a river or stream.
We need to be careful how we manage our activities in catchments, as they have the potential to impact on the environmental quality of rivers, streams, bays and the ocean, which could affect the uses and values we place on them.
Many activities can be harmful to aquatic environments if they are not carried out in a safe and considerate manner. We need to consider the many different uses of our environment and ensure we are not affecting others such as people, animal and plant life that should be able to benefit from 'healthy aquatic environments'.