EDS says the Government’s first attempt to show how its new resource management system will work in practice has done little to allay their concerns that the reforms will result in worse outcomes for the environment.

Feedback is invited on an illustrative National Policy Direction (NPD) for the new planning system.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment welcomed the Environmental Reporting Amendment Bill, a long-awaited step toward strengthening New Zealand’s environmental reporting system.

New Zealand’s largest environment NGOs have called for the Government’s replacements for the Resource Management Act – the Natural Environment Bill and the Planning Bill – to be thrown out as they are fundamentally flawed.

A Yale PhD candidate moved to Whanganui to investigate what nearly a decade of legal personhood has meant for Te Awa o Whanganui and its people.

Published annually by the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland, NZJEL is New Zealand’s leading academic journal dedicated to environmental and resource management law, featuring in-depth legal scholarship, commentary, and analysis from leading academics, judges, practitioners, and policy experts.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) was appointed as an independent adviser to the Environment Committee on 18 December 2025 to assist with its consideration of the Planning and Natural Environment Bills.

The Environmental Defence Society (EDS) has today filed its submission on the Conservation Amendment Bill, welcoming the Government’s decision to abandon the controversial conservation land exchange and disposal provisions, while warning that several significant issues remain unresolved.

For RMLA members working across environmental law, policy, planning, governance, biodiversity, natural-resource management and ecological restoration, these opportunities may be of particular professional and academic interest.

Legislation to update New Zealand’s environmental reporting regime has passed its first reading in Parliament.

Fisheries NZ is consulting on new sustainability measures for the country’s two tarakihi stocks.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment received questions from the Waitangi Tribunal, regarding the Wai 3325 Climate Change Priority Inquiry, and provided a response.