Landscape architecture shines at 2025 RMLA Awards event
The 2025 Resource Management Law Conference took place in the heart of Marlborough, Wairau Blenheim, from 10-12 September, with the presentation of awards at the Omaka Heritage Aviation Centre featuring recognition of the work of landscape architecture firms Isthmus and Boffa Miskell under two categories.
Proud award winners: Tania Richmond of Richmond Planning and Simon Button, Associate Landscape Architect at Isthmus.
Isthmus, along with the Tūpuna Maunga Authority and Richmond Planning, was recognised with a RMLA Project Award for the Maungawhau Tihi Boardwalk. Special mention was made of the innovative, elevated “floating” boardwalk along the crater rim delivering minimal impact in protecting Maungawhau’s sacred terraces while respecting mana whenua values. (Isthmus has shared a LinkedIn post with more detail. See also Maungawhau Boardwalk Opens.)
Boffa Miskell’s work with the Department of Conservation on the Punangairi Visitors Centre and Dolomite Point Redevelopment Projects gained the Very Highly Commended Project award. This acknowledged reinforcement of Pancake Rocks over many years as a destination that balances conservation, cultural heritage, innovative design, and community value. (Read more at Boffa Miskell’s LinkedIn post describing this as “a career highlight for all involved”.)
In other award presentations Sally Gepp KC received the RMLA Outstanding Person Award, and Pere Hawes received the RMLA Regional Award for significant contribution to the growth and development of resource management law at a regional level through delivering the Marlborough Environment Plan with 50 of 51 appeals resolved by consent.
The RMLA Technical Documentation Award recognised the work of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Kuia and Kāhu Environmental on the Ngāti Kuia Cultural Impact Assessment, for delivering a clear, tikanga grounded framework that voices iwi values, integrates whānau kōrero, and models best practice methodology. And the RMLA Publications Award celebrated publication of New Zealand’s first dedicated textbook on subdivision law: Subdivisions Law and Practice, co-authored by Charlotte Muggeridge and Thomas Gibbons.
A well-timed conference
RMLA conference co-convenors Quentin Davies, Kim Lawson and Sarah Pearson reported that the overall event - under its theme Sound Futures - “explored how we can care for natural resources and heritage in a time of rapid change”.
They thanked speakers and thought leaders for challenging assumptions, sparking courageous kōrero, and encouraging collective action - from iwi-led perspectives on mātauranga and kaitiakitanga through to international viewpoints on public law and climate response.
Many important issues were canvassed and discussed at the conference, which included panels on:
Climate change and natural hazards – reduction and resilience;
Future of marine management (a panel which included Brad Coombs - Principal Landscape Architect, Isthmus);
Water Water Water – fundamental freshwater futures; and
Spatial Planning into the future.
Rawiri Faulkner, currently Pou Toa Matarau at Te Runanga o Toa Rangatira, spoke to the significance of upcoming change in planning laws and a need to tread carefully and thoughtfully, to ensure we continue to achieve taiao and community outcomes whilst also informing and influencing reform and change. He posed key questions such as: What role, if any, should practitioners play to ensure that the solution does not embed a new problem?, and what will we use as our measure of success when it comes to Resource Management reform?
On the second day Judge John Hassan from the Environment Court spoke, and Prof Elizabeth Fisher - Professor of Environmental Law at the Faculty of Law and Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford - delivered a keynote address titled ‘Planning for the future - getting real about the law jobs that matter’.
Among the workshops was one run by the Ministry of the Environment to hear practitioners’ perspectives on how some of the building blocks of the new system to replace the RMA could work. On the same day MfE’s Deputy Secretary Nadeine Dommisse, introduced a session with Janette Campbell - a Barrister at Bankside Chambers - who led the Expert Advisory Group that wrote the blueprint on the current resource management reform.
Two other workshops addressed our changing climate. ‘Wildfires under a changing climate – risk reduction and adaptation’ was led by Katerina Pihera-Ridge from the newly formed Bioeconomy Science Institute and Lou Wickham of Emission Impossible.
Another workshop, ‘Shifting ground: Planning for tomorrow’s communities’, explored the critical role that spatial planning can play in effective adaptation in the face of increasing risks from sea-level rise, flooding, and erosion - specifically through the lens of planned relocation. Focus was given to initiatives occurring in Aotearoa New Zealand, including the planned relocation of Westport and Amberley Beach This featured facilitation from Helen Kerr - Principal, Landscape Architecture, Isthmus.
Topics covered at an ‘Academic session’ held on the day preceding the official programme featured: Protecting Lizards during Land-use activities; Invertebrate Protection under the RMA; Solar Farm Consenting, and RMA Enforcement with a Criminal Defence.