Annual "State of the Harbour" Scorecard
The Porirua Harbour Trust (PHT) has an important role in supporting the community, the councils, Ngati Toa and agency action to make positive changes to the ecosystems of the catchment and harbour, ensuring the Porirua Harbour and Catchment Strategy and Action Plan is implemented.
To this end the Trust has undertaken to report annually with reference to a set of State of the Harbour indicators with the aim of tracking progress towards a healthy harbour. To this end a review panel of two Trust members and an independent observer has been established. The panel is to consider data available from the Councils as well as the Trusts own surveys and projects and to use this to report on five key indicators on the health of the harbour.
The fifth Annual Scorecard was completed in March 2018 for the 2017 year.
Having an annual scorecard is extremely important said Mr Baker as over the last 20 years the harbour has become increasingly recognised for the wide range of values it has. The harbour is beautiful and more and more people want to live on its edges, or have views across the water to the surrounding hills. Many drive, cycle, and walk around the harbour while others enjoy recreational activities on the water as well as in the surrounding hills. The historic development and use of land around the harbour has resulted in the steady degradation of the values that make the harbour special.