Leadership Awards 2012: Warren Webber

Warren Webber wants to make a difference.

The Rotorua man was recently awarded a Rotorua District Council community leadership award for his work with the environment.

Mr Webber is a life member of the Lakeswater Quality Society and has served in a voluntary capacity as a committee member since 2001.

He was the founding editor of the annually published LakesNews newsletter, which has been widely distributed to the Rotorua community for the past three years.

Mr Webber is also a committee member of the Lake Rotoiti Community Association and has been a primary advocate for the association throughout the negotiation of consent renewals for the Okere Gates and Ohau Weir, which minimises lake and river margin erosion.

He has also project managed the establishment of the Waiariki Centre of Excellence in Environmental Sustainability.

Mr Webber said he knew he had been nominated for the leadership award but being presented with it was a humbling experience.

"There are many people out there giving of their time for community causes. These community leadership awards highlight the wide variety of people involved and the diversity of activities. It was humbling to be recognised as one of that group."

He said he first became involved with campaigning for environmental issues in the late 1990s, with deteriorating water quality in Lake Rotoiti being the prompt.

"I have a conference management background and contributed as part of a subcommittee which brought together the first of the Lakeswater Quality Symposia in 2001. There have been six subsequent symposia, the most recent in 2011, Fix a Lake and Grow a City - A Case Study of Rotorua."

Mr Webber said the Lakeswater Quality Society had a very able committee with a range of skills.

"There is a tremendous sense of satisfaction in making a difference."

In his time in the Lakeswater Quality Society, Mr Webber said he was most proud of the seven symposia which he said had contributed hugely to the understanding of water quality issues in the Rotorua lakes.

"These symposia have sowed the seeds for the establishment of the Lakes Restoration Programme in general, but specifically the Bay of Plenty Regional Council Chair in Lakes Management and Restoration at the University of Waikato, and the construction of the Ohau Diversion Wall."