A document that would see conservationists and land-owners in the Mackenzie Country put aside differences on the development of a swathe of high country land is being seen as a ''template'' for the rest of New Zealand.
Last month, a total of 22 organisations signed up to the ''Mackenzie Agreement'', which would develop a new ''property to property'' approach to manage future development of 269,000ha of land in the Ohau, Mackenzie and Omarama basins. Although government legislation was needed before it could be implemented, Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean yesterday said the agreement was already inspiring others to take the same collaborative approach.
Mrs Dean said she was already aware that the Mackenzie agreement was being used as a blueprint for one other co-operative agreement that was in the early stages of being set up elsewhere in the country, and she was ''hopeful'' the Mackenzie approach would become a ''template'' for the rest of New Zealand in the future.
''A lot of people are aware of the work we have done.
''People are admiring of the fact that very disparate groups with separate agendas have come together. The common view is that this is really good for the Mackenzie and really good for New Zealand.''
She added that both the way the agreement was reached and the idea that a trust should be formed to implement the agreement
had met with ''good enthusiasm''. Because the agreement was proposed to be administered and partly funded by a trust, Government legislation would be needed to enact it, which is being considered by
Conservation Minister Nick Smith and Environment Minister Amy Adams.
The proposed trust would identify which land would be either protected or irrigated in the Mackenzie Country. Mrs Dean said it might take ''some time'' for legislation to come to the fore, but work was being done behind the scenes on the structure of the proposed trust, and an official spokesman had been named.
''Really, we are in a waiting phase, but we are not just sitting on our hands.''
Since 2009, the Environment Court had dealt with a raft of disagreements, including over wilding pine control, land-use intensification, rural subdivisions and its own classification of the Mackenzie Basin as an area of outstanding natural landscape, but the agreement aimed to keep wrangles out of the Environment Court.
Speaking for the proposed Mackenzie Country Trust, Ohau businessman Mike Neilson said ''by and large'' the agreement had met with a positive response in the area.
''How we handle it from here is the critical part.''
