Heritage Protection

In 2003 the RMA was amended to include 'historic heritage' as a matter of national importance under section 6. This means that courts and consent authorities must consider relevant matters relating to heritage when making decisions under the RMA.

In the past the amount of attention given to heritage matters has varied considerably in different parts of the country, dependant on the attitude of regional and territorial councils to the inclusion of heritage matters in their RMA policies and plans. Heritage is also protected to some degree under a separate act, the Historic Places Act 1993 (HPA).

Protection under the RMA

Relevant legal provisions 

For RMA provisions relating to historic heritage, click here

Application of RMA provisions

For information about the way that heritage provisions under the RMA are applied by councils click here

Landmark court decisions

For cases relating to the protection of historic heritage click here

Key documents

For documents relating to historic heritage click here

Protection under the Historic Places Act

The HPA offers different sorts of protection to Historic Places, Wahi Tapu and to archaeological sites.

• Historic Places may be land, buildings or both and may be archaeological sites.
• Wahi Tapu are places sacred to Maori.
• Archaeological Sites are places which may be shipwrecks or sites of human activities, from before 1900 AD, able to be investigated by archaeological methods and capable of providing evidence on the history of New Zealand.

Historic places and waahi tapu

For information about the application of the Heritage Protection Act to historic places and waahi tapu, click here

Archaeological sites

For information about the application of the Heritage Protection Act to archaeological sites, click here

Additional information

For additional information about historic heritage click here

How can you contact HPT?

The Trust has regional offices with people with building, Maori heritage and archaeological expertise.