Contentious environmental issues have been propelled to the fore during New Zealand's annual mining and petroleum conferences in recent weeks.
A long time in coming, environmental protesters were invited participants at the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) conference in Nelson last month and the Department of Conservation, Forest and Bird and the Coal Action Network Aotearoa all took part in panel discussions.
At the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand (Pepanz) conference in Wellington last week, organisers maintained high security to keep a dozen protesters at bay, but provided an open-minded platform for the arguments of National, Labour and the Green Party.
While the most ardent of miners and hard-core environmentalists remain poles apart, this is the second year environmentalists have been offered, and accepted, a seat at the AusIMM conference. Their repeated inclusion was generally well greeted by the 370 mining delegates.
In a sign of changing times, Doc director-general Al Morrison gave a candid explanation for the need for compensation packages from miners to be considered, a trend that was contested by Forest and Bird and others.
Alongside environmentalist Guy Salmon was last year's Rotorua conference gatecrasher and protester Cindy Baxter, who aired the views of the Coal Action Network Aotearoa, best known for its ''Leave the coal in the hole'' campaign.
Mr Morrison was keynote speaker in the first forum, ''To mine or not to mine'', and used the recent example of West Coast mine developer Bathurst Resources paying Doc $22 million for use in pest control.
However, environmentalists have been cynical of that payment, which Doc will use on the West Coast, but in areas near where Bathurst plans to mine, which is above Westport on the Denniston plateau.
''Doc is reframing its thinking to operate around this trend [offset financial compensation] to work with companies in a value exchange,'' Mr Morrison said.
Mining companies had to ''get over it'' in considering compensation, as those who ''take the most from nature, [must] give back the most'', as '' Doc policy framework is shifting''.
However, Forest and Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell said people should ''not have to accept destruction'' of one area with unique biodiversity in order to protect an adjacent area.
''Further mining [on Denniston] may go beyond the [ecological] tipping point,'' he said.
Mr Morrison said mining companies had to look beyond just financial debt to include environmental debt, ''which has to be paid off'', citing an abandoned New Zealand copper mine that had cost taxpayers $21.7 million to clean up.
Mr Hackwell claimed Doc was ''under pressure to absent itself'' from hearings under the Resource Management Act and, in so doing, ''covered its losses'' on the Denniston plateau with the compensation payment.
''This offsetting [payment] is not mitigation; it's compensation,'' he said.
Mr Hackwell was also concerned with Doc policy on stewardship land, which includes the Denniston plateau and is considered the least protected under Doc legislation.
''Because it is a low protection status [under stewardship] does not mean it is a low conservation area,'' he said.
On a question from the floor on whether the Bathurst compensation was precedent-setting, Mr Morrison said if a mining company went for the ''cheapest price for access'', it would invite litigation, and while possibly acceptable to New Zealanders in general, may not be considered a good deal by Forest and Bird.
Resource sector lawyer Mark Christensen, of Anderson Lloyd, said he ''did not want it to appear [resource] consents could be bought''.
Mr Morrison conceded there was ''puzzlement'' on how the $21.9 millon from Bathurst was arrived at, but it included the long-term nature of deals and recognition that elements including soil, fibres, fish stocks and water could now be valued, or ''monetised''.
Several of the 370 delegates later said Mr Hackwell should be elevated from panellist to keynote speaker, in order to field more direct questions.
In the second panel discussion, former Wellington mayor and now chairwoman of the Environmental Protection Agency Kerry Prendergast was keynote speaker.
She outlined the EPA's obligations in considering resource consent applications covering seabed mining, from 12 nautical miles to the outer 200 nautical mile limit of New Zealand's exclusive economic zone, which covers 4.8 million sq km.
Listed seabed mining developer Chatham Rock Phosphate is the first applicant and is awaiting the outcome of applications to suction dredge phosphate from about 400m deep off the Chatham Rise.
Ms Prendergast understood there were 65,000 species within the EEZ and only 1% of it had been surveyed.
''New technology and highly regulated authority must work hand in hand,'' she said.
''We know we will face challenges with public expectations; the decisions we make must be transparent. Oftentimes we will be disliked by both sides [business and public] of issues,'' she predicted.
While the EPA was ''unequivocal'' that mining could bring economic benefits, that was alongside maintaining environmental responsibility and there being no negative effects, she said.
Coal Action Network Aotearoa spokeswoman Cindy Baxter called for a moratorium on seabed mining, which included proposed iron sand work by Trans-Tasman Resources in the Taranaki bight seabed, because there were no reference baselines.
She understood China was about to cap its coal use and move away from its recent high levels of steel production, which includes widespread use of coal, and said coal mining should be phased out of New Zealand by 2027.
Environmentalist Guy Salmon, director of the independent Ecologic Foundation, said on a project such as Bathurst's mine development on the Denniston plateau, more focus on risk assessments was needed.
He suggested if Doc was to focus on offset compensation, it needed to create a ''top priority list'' of areas that required extra funding, to be overseen by a board that should include conservationists.
The mining industry should not see off-sets as a ''political over-ride'', but had to build trust on issues which have been around the country for decades, he said.
On the question of when the mineral industry was going to address climate change issues, Mr Salmon said that since the collapse of climate change talks in Copenhagen earlier this year, ''now was the time'' for a unilateral approach from all parties.
As mining lobby group Straterra's chief executive, Chris Baker, noted during the forums, there was not going to be any conclusion to the panel discussions.
On the question of climate change, Mr Baker said action had to be taken, ''but not to compromise your economy. It's not good enough to say just shut down mining.''
Business Reporter Simon Hartley was a guest of AusIMM.
