What do bushfires, oyster reefs and crocodiles have in common with takeaway food?

The Taronga Institute of Science & Learning

A few weeks ago, our founder Naomi was lucky enough to speak at an Earth Optimism Day event hosted by Taronga Zoo. There is a lot in our climate crisis that is frightening; this event was about looking at solutions rather than dwelling on the problems. Naomi joined some incredible scientists from teams that are solving pretty big problems. 

Like Alex Carthey from Macquarie University, who has created recycled cardboard hiding spaces for wildlife in the wake of bushfires. Her hideouts not only solve the problem of protecting vulnerable species from predators (looking at you cats & foxes), they also solve the problem these pods usually create, which is that they often become permanent and unnecessary structures. With her hideouts there is no need for removal after the habitat is regenerated as the cardboard simply returns to the earth. Very clever lateral thinking which has been supported by the WWF.

We also met Roxanne Francis who uses drones to help make her work in waterbird conservation a lot safer from crocs. We’re not holding it against her that bringing a drone as a prop was pretty much the coolest ever.

They’ve both made great videos about their projects you should check out. 

The inspirational Francisco Martinez-Baena also taught us about the plight of the natural Oyster reefs that used to fringe Australia. His project is seeking to regenerate our native reefs which have dwindled to less than 1% of what they were

The speakers and volunteers at Earth Optimism Day!

Also speaking were Cameron Kerr the CEO of the Zoo and Danielle Fryday who ran the Taronga Hatch Accelerator. They are both absolute champions of wildlife conservation and habitat renewal.

So lots of interesting information to takeaway (see what we did there). If you’re wondering, we talked about how our reusable takeaway containers help reduce waste which in turn reduces litter, plastics and other types of contamination in the environment.

The event was hosted by the incredible team at Taronga Zoo and supported by the Cambridge Conservation Society. Thank you for inviting us!