Here at Naturisimo we’re passionate about giving back to our environment. As part of our 1% for the Planet pledge, we’ve partnered with The Conservation Collective to help support and highlight their environmental work around the world. We caught up with the team at the Collective to find out more about the inspiring work they do. What is The Conservation Collective and how does it work? We are a network of locally focused independent environment foundations which channel funding to grass-roots conservation initiatives to protect the environment, restore nature and safeguard against climate change The foundations raise funds from people and businesses who love the area and direct them to the most effective projects, campaigns and initiatives. A local director then monitors the grants given to ensure they are being used effectively. So, where did it all start? It all began in 2008 when Ben Goldsmith, our founder, set up the IbizaPreservation with some of his friends. They saw how the environment was being affected by mass tourism and unsustainable practices and wanted to do something about it. There are now thirteen of these projects, including seven in the Mediterranean, across Greece (Ionian and Cyclades Islands and the Argolic Gulf), Italy (Tuscany) and Spain (Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca); two in the UK (Devon and the Highlands & Islands of Scotland); two in the Caribbean (St Vincent & the Grenadines and Barbados) and one in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka. New foundations are under development in the Bahamas, Lamu Archipelago (Kenya), the Aegean Coast of Turkey, the Croatian Islands and Cyprus – to name but a few! What are the main challenges you face when raising funds for these projects? One of our biggest challenges is a lack of resources. The network is growing at a fast rate as awareness about the climate crisis and the destruction of biodiversity grows. The local foundations work with low overheads, normally operating only with one full-time director, doing about ten different jobs in one! There are so many incredible individuals and organisations operating on a shoestring that require and deserve funding. Whilst the central CC team supports their work, particularly when it comes to raising new funds, time is always tight. Being able to elevate and amplify the stories of the dedicated local heroes via our partnership with Naturisimo is invaluable. What is it about Naturisimo (and our community) that makes this partnership such an ideal fit? The Naturisimo community shares our understanding of nature’s importance. Through our partnership with Naturisimo, your eco-conscious customers are giving back to the environment and contributing to your investment into nature. Tell us more about the ‘The Big Give’. What is it and why is it so important to get involved? The Big Give is a match funding platform who have organised a ‘Green Match Fund’ campaign running from the 22nd to the 29th of April. The campaign is linked to World Earth Day, with the goal of drawing attention to the importance of environmental issues and raising instrumental funds for vital environmental work. By donating to our Devon or Highlands and Islands foundations through the Big Give during this time, your donation will be automatically doubled. This is an incredible opportunity to multiply the impact of your money. How do you choose the initiatives that you support? Our local directors carry out in-depth reports of their region to identify the biggest threats facing the natural environment on land, at sea, and in the rivers. These reports identify opportunities and form the basis of the initial grant-giving strategy. The local director then puts forward grant applications (often screened by a local scientific advisory board) to be assessed quarterly by the Steering Committee, which comprises a group of 5-10 of the most actively engaged donors. We aim to identify and support first-class grassroots projects which provide the largest returns for nature and maximise our impact. Storytelling is obviously a huge part of the work you do, why is it important for The Conservation Collective to share these stories? We hope to inspire anyone who hears the stories of the local heroes we support to realise that it’s easy to have an impact when you start in your own “backyard”. We also hope to give these local heroes the recognition they deserve, it is easy for large scale projects to get a platform but at the grassroots level it is easy for work to go unnoticed. Additionally, the more recognition their work receives the more funding they may get and the bigger impact they can have. Sharing stories is all about supporting and inspiring one another in our shared mission to restore and protect nature. How can the Naturisimo community get involved in these projects? Customers can get involved in our work in several ways: - Help us to raise awareness of environmental issues and our work to combat them, through sharing content on social media and starting important conversations. You can follow us on our social media channels @conservationcollective and sign up to our newsletters here. - A portion of all sales from Naturisimo will be donated directly to us. And if you want to go that one step further, you can add an extra donation at checkout too. - If there is a place you care deeply about and would like to do more to protect, get in touch and we can talk about creating a new foundation there. - If you live near a local foundation, reach out to them and find out where you can volunteer or offer an in-kind donation. What changes do you hope to see through these local projects? We want to see the regeneration of natural environments that have been damaged by human activities, and species reintroduced to habitats they had been driven out of. We would also like to see our education projects lead to long term changes in lifestyle including more people living in balance with their local resources with local economies flourishing as a result. We want to see governments creating new marine protected areas (MPAs), and actively enforcing protection measures for existing ones. We’d like to see models of sustainable ecotourism adopted more widely. We’d like to see hotels, restaurants and businesses strive towards eradicating single use plastics and operating a zero waste approach. And finally, we had to ask - what is your go-to product from Naturisimo? Too hard! Neal’s Yard Rose Oil AND Pukka teas – every type! Pukka teas focus on soil health and local produce chimes with the work of so many of our local foundations. SHOP (AND DONATE) NOW
