A suggestion councils are avoiding prosecuting people over serious environmental damage so as to not upset their voters.

The Resource Management Act gives councils responsibility to manage land, freshwater and other resources.

But new research has found, despite thousands of RMA breaches, there are fewer than a hundred prosecutions a year.

Environmental policy analyst, Marie Brown says [told Mike Hosking] this could be because councils are trying to keep their constituents happy.

"It's quite hard to take your constituents to court, there's some councils that are quite gun-shy on prosecution because politically really it makes you wildly unpopular."

LISTEN ABOVE AS MARIE BROWN SPEAKS WITH MIKE HOSKING