The annual Resource Management Law Conference is the premier event for environmental professionals nationwide and 2025 promises to deliver another thought provoking and outstanding event. Our 2025 conference is set in the heart of Marlborough’s wine country surrounded by diverse landscapes, including the mighty braided Wairau River, the dry Wither Hills and a stone’s throw away from the region’s crown jewels, the breathtaking Marlborough Sounds.

In this current period of rapid change, uncertainty and divisive narratives, how do we ensure our natural resources and heritage provide for our well-being both now and into the future? Political, social and environmental changes are increasingly complex and interwoven, requiring challenges to be met with integrated responses and collective actions. Our theme, ‘Sound Futures’, looks to challenge practitioners, consultants, businesses, industry players and decision makers alike to consider how they can provide sound futures, not just in our current context, but also into the future. What do we need to achieve integrated responses and direction? In a planning environment increasingly characterised by polarised positions, how do we bring together practitioners, tangata whenua, resource users and the wider community? Marlborough’s distinctive landscapes, sharp climatic gradients, dynamic geomorphologies and varied land uses built on our natural resources and heritage provide the perfect backdrop to inspire challenging conversations to ensure our Sound Futures.

Speakers and thought leaders
Our speakers and thought leaders will challenge our own ideas and understandings, initiate difficult conversations, and encourage collective thought and action. From iwi leaders, applying matauranga and kaitiakitanga, showing the way to environmental integration, to international reasoning on wider perspectives and long-term impact narratives on the public law as a resource for responding to climate change. We challenge you to be part of the conversations to reach Sound Futures.

Networking and collaboration opportunities
The conference will also provide ample opportunities for networking, knowledge sharing and collaboration. Workshop sessions will utilise local case studies to facilitate robust discussion and debate around reaching resilient, equitable and sustainable outcomes. Social functions will also provide an opportunity for attendees to continue those conversations in relaxed settings, enjoying Marlborough’s vibrant local wines and food.

Experience Marlborough
Beyond the conference sessions we invite you to explore the magnificence of the Marlborough region. Fieldshops will allow attendees to explore the Marlborough Sounds, be immersed in history from the earliest known human settlements at the Wairau Bar to more recent farming and aviation heritage and experience the diversity and bounty of our local catchments. Those who want a more active interaction with our region can enjoying walking and biking the Queen Charlotte Track. To saviour our region’s expansive award-winning wines, attendees can join the wine tour fieldshop or head to the south of our region to see how salt is made at New Zealand’s only saltworks. Marlborough has something for everyone, so we invite you to stay after the conference to explore further and enjoy the Marlborough lifestyle. For those of you with some extra time we encourage you to venture further afield to the Nelson Lakes or the Kaikoura Coast, both day trips from Blenheim.

We hope that you will join us in this time of change to work towards integration and collective direction and action, being part of pursuing our Sound Futures.

We look forward to welcoming you to Marlborough,

Quentin Davies, Kim Lawson and Sarah Pearson
Co-convenors | RMLA Conference 2025