As President of Tuia Pito Ora I’m fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend this year’s IFLA World Council and Congress in Nantes, France as the Aotearoa delegate.

Tuia Pito Ora NZILA has been recognised by IFLA since it was established and retains close connections with the global profession. Di Menzies was the IFLA President for a couple of terms in the 2000s and Bruno Marques of Victoria University of Wellington is into his second term as the current president.

It has been great to see Bruno in action on the world stage over the last couple of days (8-9 September).

Bruno presided over the World Council, a two-day meeting with debate and decision making on Federation issues, regional and working group presentations, and workshops on biodiversity and climate change. In attendance were the heads of all the various institutes of landscape architecture from across the globe, grouped into regions; Asia Pacific, Americas, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Some of the motions on the first day were a lot more political than I had expected, with regional and national differences playing out. But even the most robust debates between passionate landscape architects were nothing compared to the vehement anti-government protests going on concurrently around France, including Nantes. Our debates were broken up with coffee rather than teargas.

There is much earnest work being undertaken by volunteers across the profession, and it was great to see some familiar names mentioned in IFLA’s 19 working programmes*. Tuia Pito Ora members are co-leading 4 of these programmes; Indigenous Knowledge with Ashleigh Hunter, Urban Health and Wellbeing with Gayle Souter-Brown, International Landscape Convention with Di Menzies and Landscapes for Cities, Settlements and Territories with Henry Crothers. These “experts in their fields drawn from the global community” prove Kiwi exceptionalism once again, Aotearoa punching above its weight.

It has been impressive to witness IFLA actively promoting the landscape architecture profession as vital for helping tackle climate change, urbanism and biodiversity loss. Strong advocacy has built respected relationships with various UN agencies, the World Bank, the Ellen McArthur Foundation and more.

There is huge power and potential in landscape architecture to regenerate, restore and reinvent degraded landscapes and fractured communities.

In recent times it has felt really hard to make any kind of real difference in Aotearoa. But the time will come. It's happening right here in France and there currently aren't enough landscape architects to get all the work done.

Yet more proof we need a landscape-led revolution. 

* Each of the working programmes will have an award under the new IFLA global awards programme launching in 2026. Our online magazine Landscape Architecture Aotearoa (LAA) ran a preview of these programmes in April and will be keeping tabs on them.