The ''Mackenzie Agreement'' has been described as ''innovative'' and ''unique'', but announcing the details tomorrow is only the first step in achieving a collaborative approach to issues facing communities in the region.
The agreement, signed by 22 local and national organisations, is a shared vision and strategy for the future development of land and water resources in the region. Details are being kept under wraps until tomorrow.
But what will happen from now on will determine whether it is a success, a template for use in other areas of New Zealand.
While its title is the ''Mackenzie Agreement'', it in fact covers the Mackenzie, Ohau and Omarama Basins and has been developed under the auspices of the Mackenzie Sustainable Futures Trust, set up in 2011 by Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean, who is also its chairwoman.
The aim was to bring together local people and groups and national organisations with an interest in the future of the three basins.
It was an attempt to end a growing divide between people who lived and relied on the region for their livelihoods and those from outside the area who opposed any extensive development.
Mrs Dean has described the agreement in glowing terms, a way forward for an area that became a battleground between those who wanted progress, and those who opposed it.
But its success will depend on the goodwill continuing in the future.
Those parties have to be able ''sit down together and nut out any concerns for their environment and community'' based on the agreement, she said. The ''Mackenzie Agreement'' has come from a raft of 110 resource consent applications in 2008 and 2009 to Environment Canterbury which would have seen a major expansion of irrigation in the area.
Those included plans by three development companies for 16 dairy farms with up to 17,850 cows in the Ohau and Omarama Basins. The cows would be housed during the winter and part of the summer in cubicle barns.
That led to an outcry, particularly from environmental groups, and the Green Party claiming it was ''factory farming''.
When submissions closed on the applications, about 7000 had been received.
Descriptions of the dairy farm developments ranged from ''insanity'' to ''mind-boggling'' and the potential to ''derail the whole of New Zealand's tourism industry''.
The greening of what others regarded as the iconic, semi-arid Mackenzie Basin, already evident from the major State Highway 8 tourist route with the 4000ha Benmore irrigation scheme between Lake Ruataniwha and Twizel, led to widespread opposition from groups and individuals outside the area.
While many local people opposed the dairy developments, others were upset and angry about outsiders from as far away as Auckland trying to dictate the area's future. That led to a two-day Mackenzie Country Symposium in Twizel in November, 2010, organised by environmental critic the Environmental Defence Society, which brought together local people and outside groups and individuals which had been involved in the controversy of land and water development.
It was an attempt to get a consensus agreement on a way forward to allow development but at the same time protect the area.
About half of the 200 people there were locals and the divide was obvious, some speakers being jeered and booed by people on both sides of the argument. It was also boycotted by Federated Farmers and local farmers, although some farming families had a low-profile presence.
However, then Environment Minister Dr Nick Smith took some heat out of the debate when he made it clear the process should ''be driven by local people''.
He promised government funding, providing solutions were supported by local people and warned he would not listen to ''extremist positions'' from either environmental groups or developers wanting to influence people.
That offer was taken up by Mrs Dean who, in January, 2011, announced she was forming a trust to come up with a way to resolve differences over the future of the three basins.
She said the area was ''an iconic and treasured part of New Zealand'' but its future could lead to ''divisive legal battles'' over water, land use and tenure review.
''I think there is sufficient goodwill and common values to bring the key parties together to develop a shared vision for the basin.''
The Mackenzie Sustainable Futures Trust was registered in August, 2011, and included Waitaki Mayor Alex Familton, Mackenzie Mayor Claire Barlow and community representatives.
''The key to its success will be a broad membership, wide buy-in and a real commitment of the respective parties to working together on a balanced plan that incorporates economic development and environmental sustainability,'' Mrs Dean said.
It was an umbrella organisation, mainly overseeing funding, with the work to reach an agreement being handed to a working party.
The working party had representatives from a wide range of groups, but also drew on expertise available through organisations as diverse as AgResearch, Meridian Energy Ltd (a major player in water in the area), Department of Conservation, tourism groups, and individual experts and farmers.
Despite Government funding, and financial support from Environment Canterbury, the Mackenzie and Waitaki District Councils, progress was slow. Initially, it was hoped to have progress by the 2011 national elections, then the middle of last year.
Tomorrow, the agreement finally sees the light of day.
Timeline
• September, 2009: Plans revealed for major dairy development in the Ohau and Omarama Basins.
• December 2009: Opposition to irrigation and land use development in the Mackenzie-Ohau-Omarama Basins growsJanuary, 2010: Pressure grows for resource consents to be called in by Government, consequently done by Environment Minister Nick Smith.
• March, 2010: Companies developing dairy farms withdraw resource consents to dispose of effluent.
• November, 2010: Twizel symposium organised by Environmental Defence Soc discusses development. Dr Smith urges local solutions.
• January, 2011: Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean forms the Mackenzie Sustainable Futures Trust to develop a collaborative approach on future development.
• February, 2001: Forum establishes objectives.
• August, 2011: Trust registered as charitable entity, begins work.
• November, 2011: Dairy development companies refused resource consents for irrigation, vital to farms progressing.
• June, 2012: Two companies involved in dairying development go into voluntary liquidation.
• May 12, 2013: Details of the ''Mackenzie Agreement'' announced.
