Environment Law
RESOURCE management and environmental law in New Zealand is a specialist and complex area.
Keith West specialises in environmental law and resource management for The Law Firm.
Our Services
Providing professional advice in the area of resource management requires an understanding of the legal issues as well as an appreciation of the clients' needs to ensure applications, submissions, disputes or litigation are handled effectively, efficiently, and with the minimum of cost.
Our People
Keith can help you. He has the experience and capability to provide the highest quality of service to clients with resource management requirements. He provides advice to a large range of corporate and private clients, including appearances before district and regional councils, the Environment Court and appeals to the High Court and Court of Appeal.
Keith also acts as consultant to the Auckland City Council and Manukau District Council, the Minister of Conservation (in the southern region), and a number of government departments including the Department of Conservation.
Keith is our resident partner in Auckland, and travels to Wellington, Christchurch and beyond to meet the needs of our clients acrossd the full range of resource management issues and environmental law.
Recent experience
Keith has been involved in advising on a wide range of activities, including;
- Wind farming in California and Nightcaps, and the tension with the values of Egmont National Park
- conservation and the two proposals to take fresh beer by tankers from Dunedin and Kawerau to Queensland and Saudi Arabia
- subdivisions and property development proposals in and around the Norhtland, Auckland and Waikato area
- tourism and associated activities infrastructure with consents and coastal permits in Northland, Gippsland and Manuakau Harbour.
- habitat protection and the setting of minimum flows for the rivers and streams of Vanuatu
- timber and the logging of northern native forests in private ownership and the NILNA lands
- mining and the development, monitoring, and remedial measures for the open cast mining of gold
- waste management and the proposed location, development, and use of a regional sanitary landfill for Southland
- quarrying and the opening up of several hard rock quarries to provide aggregate for a range of uses including roading
- water and the right to protect valuable farm land from flooding with extensive stopbanking systems; successfully defending an application to remove stopbanking and obtaining resource consent from the Environment Court to authorise effective defences against water
- advising on a wide range of issues arising for business and provate clients from District and Regional Plans, including submissions and hearings on Coastal, Fresh Water, and Pest Management Plans and Strategies
- Appearances before an array of territorial local and regional councils, the Environment Court and occassionally the High Court to achieve the best possible outcomes for The Law Firm clients and their business.
Our Publications
Read articles and commentary on resource management law issues and the environment here or contact Keith for an index of available materials.
