EDITORIAL

Sir Rob Fenwick, a former Trustee of the Motutapu Restoration Trust (MRT), passed away on March 11, 2020. It is with great sadness that we farewell Sir Rob, a long-standing environmentalist who, along with others, founded MRT in 1992. Sir Rob was a much loved and treasured friend, Trustee and Chairman following the retirement of Jim Holdaway in the 1990s. He continued as a Guardian after he stepped down in 2002. It is thanks to the foresight that he and others had in the early 1990s that Motutapu is an open wildlife sanctuary today.

Under Rob’s leadership, the Trust worked on its long term vision and continued the restoration of Motutapu that is now home to many threatened species such as takahe, saddleback, pateke, popokotea, bellbird, kakariki and kiwi.

Sir Rob was also Chair of Kiwis for kiwi for ten years and one year as its Patron. He released Ropata, his namesake, onto Motutapu in 2016 as part of the recovery of Coromandel brown kiwi.

In 1994 he co-founded Living Earth Ltd, an organic composting service. Living Earth has sponsored potting mix for the propagation of saplings in the Trust’s nursery on Motutapu since the beginning of the ecological restoration project. It was the country’s first municipal composting business diverting thousands of tonnes of organic waste from landfills. Sir Rob was living proof that you could be passionate about both business and the environment.

Sir Rob was credited with inspiring the Predator Free New Zealand 2050 movement and he co-founded the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development. His contribution to conservation and sustainability has been enormous. Sir Rob was a New Zealander of the Year Finalist in 2016 and knighted in 2016 for services to business and conservation.

We mourn the loss of someone so dedicated to making New Zealand a better place. He was a remarkable person whose vision, passion and commitment to New Zealand’s biodiversity was inspirational. In his final weeks he publicly stated the need for urgent action to save our native forests and species from extinction. In his memory we must continue to honour his wish by planting trees and restoring ecosystems on Motutapu.

Until the end, Sir Rob was working, with over $127,000 raised in donations at his funeral. The funds will be used to continue the work he started, to save kiwi from extinction and instead grow the population.

Our thoughts and condolences are with his wife Jennie Lady Fenwick and his family.

Sir Rob, you will be sorely missed.

Rest in peace.