Guardians of Kapiti Marine Reserve win awards

Celebrating Guardians of Kapiti Marine Reserve's awards, from left, Karl Webber, Kapiti mayor K Gurunathan, councillor Angela Buswell, Sarah Porter, Ben Knight and Chris Paulin.

The Guardians of Kapiti Marine Reserve charitable trust are honoured and grateful to have been awarded both the heritage and environment and supreme winner categories at the recent Wellington Airport Kapiti Community Awards ceremony.

Guardians chairman Ben Knight said it was a huge honour to receive the awards on behalf of the wider Guardians network.

The awards were recognition of the importance and value that the local community placed on having an abundant local marine environment to protect and enjoy.

"I'd like to say a big thank you to all of the nearly 700 members of the wider Guardians network for supporting our kaupapa over the past 12 months.

"It wouldn't have been possible without all of the contributions and support we've received from the wider Kapiti community."

"I would also like to acknowledge all those members of the community who had the vision, determination and commitment to support the reserve proposal back in the early 1990s.

"People like Ken Grange and the other members of the original management committee did a huge amount of work in the early days to ensure the management needs of the reserve were met and that the community had input into and took ownership of the management of the reserve.

"These awards are also an acknowledgement of all that hard work that was put into the setting up and managing the reserve in its early days.

"I'm particularly pleased that we won the heritage and environment category, given how important our local marine environment is in terms of our collective history, heritage and way of life on the coast.

"Having an abundant marine environment ensures we retain our customary community connections to the sea, and so our work as kaitiaki/guardians is as much about protecting that heritage and rich history of community connectedness to the marine space as it is about protecting the environment, so winning this category was particularly appropriate for us."