You may not know it, but L’Occitane – yes, the French beauty brand known for its luxurious creams and skincare products – has been helping Australia get back on its feet environmentally after the devastating bushfires of 2019/2020.
Relatively quietly, the brand donated $228,000 to the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife last year. FNPW is the charity partner of Australia’s National Parks, and the donation has contributed to multiple bushfire recovery nurseries – Yankalilla Community Nursery, SA, Greening Australia, ACT, and Hawkesbury Community Nursery, NSW – contributing to tree planting which helps generate habitats for koala populations.
It’s no secret that the NSW koala population was devastated by the bushfires. In the North Coast, around 50% of the Gondwana Rainforest World Heritage Area was destroyed, meaning the habitats of many native species including koalas went with it.
For 2021, L’Occitane has awarded a grant to Friends of the Koala Inc., a bushfire recovery nursery located just outside of Lismore, to expand itself by 80,000 trees. The nursery is crucial when it comes to the rehabilitation and conservation of the North Coast koala population, and operates both a nursery and hospital for the animals.
“Everyone of us saw firsthand the devastation that the 2019/20 bushfires caused to Australian wildlife, particularly koalas, with over 60,000 of them said to have been impacted. We are thrilled as a brand to be able to assist the Friends of the Koala nursery with the recovery of tree species in the NSW North Coast,” says Pierre-Emmanuel Joffre, General Manager of L’Occitane Australia.
Friends Of The Koala nursery manager, Mark Wilson, says L’Occitane’s support will mean more koalas finding their new homes.
“The support of L’OCCITANE Australia and FNPW has meant that we are now a step ahead in our mission to protect NSW’s declining koala population. The Black Summer was the worst environmental disaster witnessed in history, killing or displacing three billion animals, so it’s our first priority to start rebuilding habitats to protect our beloved native wildlife.”
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