Although the workings of the heavily Government-funded trust provided an arena for cross-party political sledging this week after the Labour party questioned an $88,000 payment to consultancy firm Ecologic, many of those involved in negotiations have said they are happy with the results of the consultation process.
In total, the trust received $180,000 in funding from the Ministry for the Environment, as well as $10,000 from Environment Canterbury and $5000 each from the Waitaki and Mackenzie district councils.
Previously, the Environment Court, conservationists, landowners, farmers and tourism groups have been at loggerheads over the management of land in the Mackenzie Country.
Since 2009, the Environment Court has dealt with a raft of disagreements, including wrangles over wilding pine control, land-use intensification, rural subdivisions and its own classification of the Mackenzie Basin as an area of outstanding natural landscape.
And although the expected subsequent agreement will not be published until next month, Waitaki Mayor Alex Familton said he had seen the document and was happy it had the potential to provide a "good foundation" for the future.
He said the Waitaki District Council had agreed to provide $5000 towards the process, aimed at creating a platform in which stakeholders could collaborate outside of "costly" litigation processes.
"The decision that has been produced has the potential to do that, but a positive outcome still depends on the goodwill of all stakeholders in positively embracing the collaborative process."
The council contribution had been money "well spent", as the agreement would also include parts of Omarama and Twizel, he said.
North Otago Federated Farmers high country section chairman Simon Williamson said the creation of the trust had provided everyone with a "better understanding" of each other's position and resulted in a "wide-ranging" collaborative agreement.
Although he could not give details of the agreement before it was released publicly, he said the trust forum had achieved its aims.
"It really just covers where people see the future of the Mackenzie and there were a lot of people that had different visions.
"It was designed to circumnavigate the need to keep going to the Environment Court. That was the whole idea of it, that you could all agree to something that district councils could use in their district plans rather than having to put out a district plan and everyone objects to it and goes to the Environment Court."
Forest and Bird acting South Island conservation manager Debs Martin said the society was "quite confident" that the process had achieved its aims and the agreement would alleviate some of the pressures and conflicts of interest that had been occurring.
"We have been a very engaged member of that process, and from talking to the field staff that have been involved, people are quietly confident in the process and the outcomes that will stem from it."
There had been compromises made on all sides, but the situation was "certainly a long way ahead" of where it had been a year ago, Ms Martin said.
