The Nikwax Philosophy – More Than Waterproofing. Part 3 – Supporting Conservation

This logo represents the Nikwax approach to Supporting Conservation.

Here at Nikwax, we believe that everybody has a vested interest in and responsibility to protect the natural world, and there are organisations in place which focus solely on conserving threatened areas. One such organisation which Nikwax strongly supports is the European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA).

EOCA is formed of over 130 businesses from within the European Outdoor Industry, which together raise funds to put into conservation projects around the world in a bid to save and preserve endangered habitats and wildlife. Nick Brown, CEO of Nikwax, is now Vice President of EOCA and Nikwax itself has been working closely with the organisation since it was created back in 2006.

©Yadesa Aceh

For more than 12 years, EOCA has helped over 100 projects in over 44 countries, providing over €2 million in funding for conservation. Every year non-profit organisations can apply to EOCA for funding grants and EOCA Members can then nominate projects they wish to back, with a successful shortlist being put out for a public vote to determine who will receive funding. There have been a wide variety of projects which have benefitted from this funding; ranging from protection of Elephant corridors in India, to the protection of Old-Growth forests in Sweden, through to the restoration of fragile habitats in the West Fjords region of Iceland.

One key EOCA fundraising event which Nikwax supported was their Two Million Tree Project,which commenced in 2016. As a means to celebrate EOCA turning 10 years old, and having given over €2 million towards conservation, they created a project that anybody could take part in – to plant over 2 million trees. In June 2018 they smashed their target, with more than 2.5 million trees planted!

©John Muir Trust

To mark Nikwax’s 40 year birthday milestone we wanted to do something that would leave a meaningful legacy, say thank you to everyone who has supported Nikwax over the years – and at the same time, support EOCA’s target to plant £2m trees and World Land Trust conservation efforts. So we did two things: we gifted our friends and followers with the chance to have a tree planted by World Land Trust in their name, whilst those based in the UK were also gifted wild flower seeds to plant wherever they choose. To encourage nature into whatever little patch of Eden they had planted to enjoy.

The World Land Trust is another organisation which helps protect threatened ecosystems. A key focus of theirs is to raise funds for the purchase and protection of critically threatened land and work with local communities to sustainably manage and protect the land. This is a means to ensuring the long-term survival of vital habitats and wildlife.

Nikwax supports World Land Trust through calculating and offsetting carbon emissions and donating the figure to their Carbon Balanced Programme. To further support the Trust’s work Nikwax also makes a matching donation to the World Land Trust Action Fund to use for their most pressing conservation needs.

©World Land Trust

Through the Action Fund Nikwax donations have been used to create the Cerro Candelaria Reserve in Ecuador – where the land purchase was part of a successful challenge to create a protected corridor between Ecuador’s two national parks. This corridor now protects and preserves forest habitats that contains a unique diversity of orchids and a whole host of threatened species. Our donations have also saved forests imminently threatened by the expansion of Oil Palm plantations in Borneo where land was purchased to connect isolated forest areas to provide connectivity for Orang-utans, Pygmy Elephants and other threatened species to move safely.

©HUTAN/Marc Ancrenaz

Putting money aside to help fund conservation and reforestation is something that Nikwax will continue to do to give all the support we can to those organisations that are truly helping to make a difference to the natural world that we all know and love.

©Chris Perrett