📦 We’re On The Move! 🚚 Dear valued customers, We’re excited to share that we’re moving our studio to a new location! While we’re busy packing and relocating, we won’t be able to take any orders until 8 May. Feel free to browse our products and prepare your wish list for when we’re back in action. We appreciate your understanding and can’t wait to serve you again soon!
"It is surely, our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth." - David Attenborough.
Your real leaf purchase directly funds one Eucalyptus tree for a koala! We love our endangered cuddly mates and we want to create a business that gives back to nature by helping restore koala homes. Together with our non-for-profit reforestation partners, One Tree Planted, we are re-growing forests in Australia. Thanks to all our generous customers we have already planted hundreds of trees in Australian reforestation projects. Our iconic Koalas are essential to the complex web of life in Australia. By restoring the bushland in which they live, most of our important wildlife also benefit. Forests in which koalas are found are extremely important to local biodiversity, and every animal, insect and fungi contributes to the health of the ecosystem.
It may seem like a distant memory to some, after all, the devasting bushfires of 2019/2020 are a pandemic away! Some 8400 koalas in NSW perished in the fires and South Australia's Kangaroo Island lost over 50% of their koala population. It is an awful blow for our little mates already in decline and it has the potential to slide them towards extinction in eastern Australia. Over 12 million hectares of land was burned and an estimated 3 billion animals were killed or displaced.
We create awesome real leaf jewels that plant trees! Share a beautiful homegrown leaf with a loved-one.
We donate a percentage of each jewellery sale to OneTree Planted, a non-for-profit organisation dedicated to Australian and global reforestation. All the donations to our planting partner fund tree growing projects in Australia.
Where we plant in Australia...
Our koalas are already benefiting from our donations to One Tree Planted through a tree planting project in the Northern Rivers of NSW. This project aims to create a koala wildlife corridor by forming a linkage of habitat from Byron Bay westward towards Tenterfield, north to the Queensland border and south towards Grafton.
Some 31 728 have already been planted, with another 27 790 more currently growing in local nurseries. This is just the beginning of a larger reforestation plan aiming to plant 250 000 trees by 2025.
Other areas planted so far include: Booyong, Clunes, Binna Burra, Federal, Bangalow, Newrybar, Coorabell, Nashua, Broken Hill, Coopers Shoot, Talofa, Ewingsdale, Possum Creek, Repentance Creek, Coraki, Swan Bay, and Woodburn.
Here's what we are planting and how...
The project involves several aspects which will restore and protect the Northern Rivers koala population as well as other threatened wildlife species whose habitats were severely impacted by the 2019/2020 bushfires.
The local community is involved in tree planting events, educational workshops, and continued habitat monitoring and maintenance.
Tree species that are planted include Tallowwood, Swamp Mahogany, Forest Red Gum, Paperbark, Small-fruited Grey Gum, Flooded Gum - which are a mix of eucalyptus for koalas' favourite foods.
One millions trees to be planted in nurseries...
Our partners have also announced exciting news that together with the Australian Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife (FNPW) we will be planting up to one million trees in Bushfire Recovery Nurseries! At this time, many areas have still not recovered enough to begin tree planting but that doesn't mean we can't get ahead of the curve and start growing the trees in the meantime!
Setting up tree nurseries is a great first step in restoring forests as it allows us to prepare for planting and be ready to get trees in the ground as soon as the land permits us to do so. The project will be executed in phases over the next 5 years.
In order to ensure the restoration process is as effective as possible, FNPW is in the process of working with local governments as well as community partners to assess areas most affected by the fires. These areas include New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and South Australia.
When the trees from the Bushfire Recovery Nurseries are ready to be planted in their forever homes, they will be planted in national parks across Australia to other public and private lands.
The bushfire recovery priority areas are focused on the following regions:
Region 1 : Mount Lofty to Kangaroo Island Connection in South Australia. Region 2 : NSW South Coast to Victoria Gippsland Corridor. Region 3 : Gondwana Rainforest World Heritage area in NSW & QLD and the NSW North Coast.
Koalas & Eucalyptus trees have an incredible evolutionary history...
Forests in which koalas are found are extremely important to local biodiversity. By protecting the bushland in which our koalas live, most of our important wildlife also benefit.
Eucalyptus trees have been native to Australia for about 60 million years, having adapted over time to an environment in which drought, nutrient-poor soil, and fire are increasingly common.
Interestingly, the oils in eucalyptus trees can heat up, causing bushfires to spread, so nature developed a clever way to prevent eucalyptus from dominating the landscape: koalas, one of the few animals that can digest this fibrous plant. By munching on eucalyptus, koalas effectively maintain healthy and balanced forests. They gain food, hydration, and energy, and the forest is not overburdened with excess fire fuel.
Their trimming of the canopy also creates gaps for sunlight to shine through to the ground so that low growing plants can also thrive. This ecosystem relationship is just another example of nature's extraordinary wisdom.
Unfortunately, this delicate balance can only last so long before the additional pressures of deforestation, a changing climate, and a severe fire season come along to disrupt millions of hectares of habitats, leading to a biodiversity crisis.
There is much more that needs to be done to address the broader challenges facing a fast-changing landscapes, but we hope that sensible reforestation coupled with wildlife-friendly conservation will help to revitalize the ecosystem for koalas and countless other creatures for many years to come.
If you have any questions regarding our tree planting campaign please contact us through our form or email realleafjewelleryaustralia@gmail.com
