RMA Reform: A shift in language – but not in relevance
Forming a perspective on how Resource Management Reform may affect landscape architects in Aotearoa New Zealand is going to call for many conversations.
Contributed by Josh Hunt
I am a Registered Landscape Architect who has grown up professionally under the Resource Management Act (RMA), shaped by its strengths and flaws, and guided by the slow burn of plan reviews, case law, and the court of public opinion.
I’ve seen what happens when we’re brought in too late—and what happens when we’re not trusted from the start.
I’ve also seen the transformative potential of our profession when it’s done right: when landscape isn’t a layer added on top, but a logic that underpins everything else. And now, as we step into the uncertain but promising territory of the Natural and Built Environment Act (NBA), I can’t help but think—maybe this has the makings of what we’ve been waiting for
Under the RMA, landscape professionals had a clear foothold. Section 7(c) gave statutory weight to amenity values, allowing us to speak to coherence, pleasantness, and the lived experience of place. Section 6(b) offered protection to Outstanding Natural Features and Landscapes (ONFLs), opening the door to meaningful case law and sophisticated landscape reasoning.
The NBA, on its face, doesn’t speak our language in quite the same way. “Amenity values” are gone. “Landscape character” doesn’t show up as a defined outcome. The traditional hooks we used to hang our evidence on have been removed or rewritten.
But that doesn’t mean we’re out of work. Quite the opposite. The NBA presents a new framework—one structured around environmental outcomes, limits, and strategic spatial planning. It’s not less relevant to landscape practice; it just demands a shift in how we demonstrate our value.
From Effects to Outcomes: Evolving Our Approach
The NBA is designed to be outcome-focused. Rather than narrowly assessing effects and checking off criteria, the emphasis is now on how activities achieve positive outcomes for the environment and communities. This aligns more closely than ever with the approach outlined in Te Tangi a te Manu (TTatM), our national landscape assessment guidelines.
TTatM encourages a principles-based, place-specific, and culturally informed practice. It tells us not just to analyse, but to interpret—to understand the interplay of physical, perceptual, and associative dimensions of landscape. Under the NBA, I believe this kind of interpretive work will become more valuable, not less. We’ll be asked to explain how a development supports (or fails to support) outcomes like:
well-functioning urban and rural environments that enhance well-being,
the protection of ONFLs,
and the relationship of iwi and hapū with whenua.
Rather than pushing landscape assessment further to the margins, the NBA invites us to step forward—as storytellers, translators, and strategists.
Spatial Planning: The Strategic Door We’ve Been Knocking On
If the RMA often cast us as late-stage critics, the NBA opens the door to be early-stage contributors.
One of the most significant changes in the new planning regime is the introduction of Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS) and Natural and Built Environment Plans (NBA Plans). These tools are designed to guide long-term decisions about land use, infrastructure, growth, and environmental protection. They’re being developed collaboratively, through Regional Planning Committees that include representatives from local authorities and mana whenua.
For once, we’re not being called in to react—we’re being invited in to shape.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to embed landscape thinking into the DNA of regional plans. We can advocate for:
Character-based zoning and overlays – planning tools that reflect local landscape identity rather than broad-brush development categories;
Landscape-sensitive growth strategies;
Integrated urban and rural identity frameworks;
And most importantly, for a values-based approach to managing change.
It’s up to us to be in the room when those plans are written. If we’re not, we risk watching character, identity, and lived experience get buried by other metrics.
Te Ao Māori and Cultural Landscape Leadership
The NBA also elevates Te Oranga o te Taiao—a principle that reflects the health and interconnectedness of the environment, people, and the mauri that binds them. It foregrounds tāngata whenua perspectives and acknowledges the intrinsic relationship of iwi and hapū with place.
Landscape architecture, when grounded in manaakitanga and whakawhanaungatanga, has a natural affinity with this kaupapa. We understand that land is not a blank canvas. It holds memory, whakapapa, and mana. Cultural landscapes are not overlays—they are lived systems that extend from past to future.
To rise to the challenge, we must:
Partner meaningfully with mana whenua and pūkenga;
Honour mātauranga Māori as a source of authority in assessments;
And support the expression of whenua as taonga through design and planning.
This isn’t just good practice—it’s legislative expectation. And for our profession, it’s a powerful opportunity to demonstrate cultural leadership and partnership in action.
Our Work Won’t Disappear – It Will Diversify
Let’s be clear: I don’t see us as being legislated out. But the NBA will change the shape and scope of our work.
Proposal-driven assessments won’t vanish—but they’ll need to speak to outcomes and policy intent, not just mitigation.
Plan-making and spatial strategy will increasingly require landscape input—early and often.
Engagement with Te Ao Māori will become fundamental—not optional.
What this means is: our work won’t disappear—it will diversify. This is the time to be adaptive, proactive, and highly visible. We must speak not only as designers and assessors, but as strategic thinkers capable of translating values into action.
The Kaweka Range of mountains is located in inland Hawke's Bay in the eastern North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui).
Reframing the Narrative
At different times in my career I’ve been told more than once that Landscape Architects don’t really do much or had my involvement questioned altogether. I’ve been called a “professional site visitor,” a “rubber stamper,” a “Photoshop botanist,” an “edge softener,” and, my personal favourite, a “mitigation muppet”.
I vaguely recall one of the final-year landscape architecture classes at Lincoln, sometime in the early 2000s, printing t-shirts that proudly announced: “We draw trees!” It was a knowing wink to how our profession is often perceived—somewhere between artistic embellishment and afterthought.
Yes, we do draw trees. We also draw attention to context, to character, to history, to whakapapa, and to the spatial relationships that shape how people live with the land. And maybe we’re exactly the people who should be helping decide where the lines could be drawn—on a plan, through a landscape, or between what’s protected and what’s possible.
So no, we’re not “professional site visitors”. We’re professional observers. Listeners. Narrative weavers. And if we choose to show up—early, informed, and unapologetically—then we can help shape the future of place in Aotearoa.
To my colleagues in the profession of Landscape Architecture, I encourage as many of us as possible to convene in Heretaunga at the NZILA Firth Wānanga 2025 and to join in being part of this conversation.
Note: This article draws from professional practice shaped under the Resource Management Act and informed by the evolving legislative framework of the Natural and Built Environment Act, alongside Te Tangi a te Manu: Aotearoa New Zealand Landscape Assessment Guidelines.
About the Author:
Josh Hunt is a Registered Landscape Architect and Director of Narrative Landscape Ltd, based in Hawke’s Bay. With a B.L.A. (Hons) from Lincoln University and over 14 years' experience, Josh specialises in landscape assessment within Aotearoa’s statutory planning framework. He has contributed to District-wide ONL studies, wind, solar and marine farm assessments, and plan changes for large-scale developments. He is a former NZILA HBM Branch Chair and proud “mitigation muppet”.