Protecting the environment and biodiversity

AMICOS implements innovative projects to contribute to sustainable rural development, getting people with disabilities involved in ecosystems protection activities, sea conservation, and reforestation programmes. AMICOS’ vision is to help drive a more inclusive and sustainable society where people with disabilities can be active participants in changemaking.

In 2022/2023, the Eurofins Foundation supported the project AMICOS Sea Care, an environmental project led by people with intellectual disabilities.

Their objective is the preservation of the marine biodiversity in Galicia (North-West Spain), primarily targeting the Marine Protected Areas in the Natura 2000 network, which represents 8.8% of the region.

AMICOS SEA CARE aims to protect marine ecosystems through marine waste collection, treatment and prevention. The project promotes the active participation and collaboration of fishing organisations, local schools, companies and visitors in the natural areas targeted.

The Eurofins Foundation directly permitted:

• 20 beach and coast clean-up sessions have been carried out with 11,200 children an 460 kilos of waste collected;
• 50 fishermen evaluated and supported about on-board waste management good practices and received a portable container;
• The realisation of a report with improvement proposals

In total, more than 885 kilos of waste were collected from the seas and beaches (of which, 75 % were plastic waste). AMICOS has conducted 30 awareness-raising sessions in local schools on ocean protection and recycling through games and art. Ten people living with intellectual disabilities have been trained as nature and environmental protection guides (280 hours of theoretical training and practical on-the-job training). In addition, more than 500 visitors participated in awareness-sessions about marine waste prevention in natural sites as ports and beaches.

The AIMS is committed to undertaking research that addresses real needs and provides impartial, authoritative advice that supports both the protection and sustainable use of Australia’s marine heritage, now and in the future.

Microplastics are contaminants of emergent concern and are ubiquitous in the marine environment globally.
With the levels of marine microplastic contamination likely increasing due to increased plastic production and no substantial changes in solid waste management, scientists and governments are interested in microplastic monitoring programmes that can help to better inform environmental management.

In Australia, microplastic contamination has been reported throughout the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA). However, a comprehensive understanding of the status and trends of this contamination in the region is lacking due to the limited number of studies in relation to the GBRWHA area, as well as the absence of seasonal and temporal information on levels of microplastic contamination.

To address this knowledge gap, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) has been routinely collecting seawater samples in inshore areas of the GBRWHA since February 2017 to monitor microplastic presence, abundance, and characteristics.

In 2022/2023, the Eurofins Foundation supported a collaborative project between AIMS and Eurofins to analyse samples from the inshore GBRWHA for microplastic contamination and assess analytical procedures to streamline seawater sample processing and analysis for marine microplastic monitoring programmes. 

Part of the data generated was presented in August 2023 at the SETAC Australasia Conference (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry). The support also provided AIMS staff the opportunity to visit Eurofins’ microplastics laboratory facility in Melbourne, which helped them leverage changes on AIMS facility and laboratorial procedures that would improve the quality assurance and quality control of their microplastics research. The visit to the Eurofins laboratory in Melbourne has also provided valuable information used for AIMS new vessel planning, in which AIMS is looking into having a microplastics specific area for sample pre-processing and processing. Lastly, the Eurofins Foundation has also helped AIMS to leverage the acquisition of a new sampling device to be used for microplastics collection in the seawater, which will expand AIMS capabilities to sample water at various depths with minimum effort and high efficiency.

Results from this project are creating awareness in the general public concerning microplastic contamination and plastic pollution in general, as well as providing valuable information regarding microplastics presence and distribution along the GBRWHA. This project is closely aligned with other microplastic monitoring initiatives from AIMS, resulting in a comprehensive spatial and temporal dataset which is expected to be used by marine state regulators to conduct environmental risk assessments.

Blue carbon, which is carbon stored in coastal and ocean ecosystems, is key to mitigating the effects of climate change, but these vital habitats are in catastrophic decline.

In 2020, the Eurofins Foundation supported BLUE in proving the carbon sequestration value of two of its projects: the restoration of saltmarsh, seagrass and oysters in the Solent, and the protection of Sussex kelp forests. These projects were used as templates to leverage increased protection and restoration of coastal ecosystems for greater conservation impact.

The Eurofins Foundation’s support also allowed BLUE to gain a deeper understanding of the possible co-benefits and how they can be effectively supported. The Eurofins Foundation enabled BLUE to support a master’s student in Jersey to undertake an assessment of the blue carbon value of intertidal macroalgae.

The Eurofins Foundation also provided a grant to the project “Combat overfishing of the Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna stock”. This project aims to reform the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission’s (IOTC) management of tropical tuna to secure an impactful and binding stock recovery plan and improved fisheries management measures for yellowfin tuna. BLUE is campaigning for at least a 25% reduction in yellowfin catch and a responsible catch limit for skipjack tuna (often caught with yellowfin tuna).

Thanks to the Eurofins Foundation’s support, significant progress was achieved. A few examples include:

• The creation of a short film, part of BLUE’s #TACforTuna campaign, highlighting the urgent need for a responsible recovery plan and total allowable catch (TAC) for yellowfin tuna and the role played by industrial distant water fleets in the overfishing of the stock. The film reached almost 2 million views on social media.
• Playing a leading role in developing the NGO Tuna Forum’s statement submitted to the IOTC. BLUE also worked with the International Pole and Line Foundation (IPNLF) to draft a statement supporting improved drifting Fishing Aggregating Devices (FAD) management in the Indian Ocean, which over 100 organisations signed. In addition, BLUE hosted a Symposium with 13 expert speakers. It developed its own set of FAD minimum requirements that over 120 other organisations and retailers have endorsed.
   

In 2021/2022, the Eurofins Foundation supported BLUE’s project ‘Catalysing significant investment into ocean protection and restoration through a Blue Carbon Accelerator Fund.’

Blue carbon is under-researched and massively underfunded. BLUE has engaged with many blue carbon projects that struggle to secure development funding and is developing a ground-breaking blended capital fund.

Although progress was made in all workstreams, BLUE concluded that the project pipeline for blue carbon is too immature, too focused around a few, highly over-subscribed projects and too expensive to bring on stream in the timeframe necessary to deliver a return for investors. However, the learnings from the exercise, including the identification of key gaps in science, policy and economics has led BLUE Marine to build up its specialist units focusing on those areas so that the market for blue carbon can develop as fast as possible and so a Blue Carbon Accelerator fund could be not only viable but highly successful in the future.

Meanwhile, Blue Marine also launched their five-year science programme, which aims to broaden the potential sources of verified blue carbon beyond seagrass, saltmarsh and mangroves to include sediment carbon.  Key scientific questions about sediment carbon are where and what quantity of carbon is present in various sites across the globe and what the anthropogenic impacts on this carbon have been.  

In 2022/2023, the Eurofins Foundation renewed its trust to Blue Marine, supporting the creation of the largest marine reserve in Mexico to implement a 192,000 square kilometre Marine Protected Area (MPA) and promote new models of sustainable development in the seas surrounding the state of Baja California Sur, an extraordinary sanctuary for marine life, including orcas, mobula rays and nine species of whale.

The funding awarded by Eurofins has contributed to the following progress:

• Agua Amarga (and other identified communities to replicate the project in) are supportive of the MPA.
• Shark fishermen within the communities we work with transition to a sustainable tourism-based model.
• A baseline study is conducted to properly understand the area and the best course of action.
• There is increased awareness of the importance of the MPA.
• The longevity of the MPA is ensured through engagement and support from the communities of influence.
• The project can act as a template that is replicable throughout the region.

The support from the Eurofins Foundation has been transformational as the project is now ready to embark on phase two of the implementation. Blue Marine is now looking to raise ambition with its education unit and increase accessibility in the marine conservation sector and the academic work surrounding the topic.

In 2023/2025, the Eurofins Foundation supports the Blue Marine Foundation, thus facilitating the ongoing operation of an education unit at the BLUE Marine Foundation and as such, the following initiatives:

The Virtual Reality programme, which aims to make learning about the ocean more accessible to people, including children. Through this, the Blue Marine Foundation has already been able to educate over 300 people about the ocean.

The fourth year of a multifaceted education programme in the Aeolian Islands to boost support for a new proposed marine protected area (MPA).

In the South Atlantic island St Helena, the Blue Marine Foundation was able to re-launch a dive scholarship programme aimed at engaging young people in ocean conservation by equipping them with career enhancing skills. By introducing these skills to young people studying marine science or those seeking experience in the marine sector, the Blue Marine Foundation aims to fill the gap between theoretical and practical skills in marine conservation.  

In 2020/2021, the Eurofins Foundation supported Borneo Nature Foundation’s (BNF) work in the Sebangau National Park, the largest non-fragmented area of lowland rainforest remaining in Borneo, containing the world’s largest protected population of the Bornean orangutan.

Prior to receiving protected status, the area was logged extensively, firstly by legal, controlled logging and then by intense illegal logging, resulting in peatland drainage which puts the whole ecosystem at risk from fires, causes substantial public health problems across the region, destroys large swathes of rainforest, and is a significant cause of increasing atmospheric CO2 levels, accelerating climate change.

BNF works with local communities and governments to address the causes of the fires by restoring degraded peatlands and encouraging behavioural changes among local communities while tackling the impact of fires by improving local firefighting capacity and developing fire-prevention networks. The primary objective of this project is to reduce fires in the target area, benefit biodiversity conservation and improve human health.

Funding from the Eurofins Foundation has been integral to implementing conservation activities in the Sebangau National Park. Since receiving this funding in January 2021, BNF has established four additional community nurseries to supply the seedlings needed for reforestation and generate extra income for local people through a seedling buyback scheme.

BNF has also maintained 410 dams, aiding water retention and thus raising groundwater levels to reduce fire risk, and conducted monthly hydrology monitoring, using 40 dip-wells to monitor the groundwater dip table, and 35 locations across ten canals to monitor water flow.

In March 2021, BNF built a new in-situ nursery in the reforestation area, with a capacity for over 25,000 seedlings.

In combination with their other in-situ nursery, they can now store 45,000 seedlings, ready for planting. They also constructed a 1km boardwalk in June 2021 to improve accessibility to the reforestation area. Finally, they have engaged with 282 children through education programmes in 2021, through online sessions due to COVID-19, and through regular Anak Sebangau and Sebangau Rangers youth clubs.

Local stakeholders are involved in the various activities managed by the Borneo Nature Foundation. This involvement benefits both political leaders and the NGO, as it helps build relationships with local leaders and ensures long-term sustainable conservation in Borneo. It also supports the largest region of lowland rainforest remaining in Borneo, with approximately 6,000 orangutans believed to live there.

In 2023/2024, the Eurofins Foundation renewed its support to the Borneo Nature Foundation, through a contribution to the project 1 Million Trees in Indonesia, which is reforesting areas that were burnt down in major fires between 2015 and 2019, with a particular focus on sites that have failed to naturally regenerate.

This initiative addresses the root cause of the fires by restoring the peatland’s natural hydrology and fire-resistance and supporting a network of firefighting patrols to rapidly identify and respond to fires. The BNF puts local communities at the heart of the project, from growing seedlings to putting out fires and developing peat-friendly sustainable livelihood practices. 

The Nam Pouy National Protected Area (NPA) is home to Laos' second largest wild elephant population (40 to 60 individuals). However, little is being done to protect this population, which remains critically endangered due to deforestation and poaching. 

To this effect, in 2021/2022, the Eurofins Foundation contributed to the “Nam Pouy Wild Elephant Conservation and Community Development Project”.

Des Eléphants & Des Hommes, together with their technical partner, the Elephant Conservation Center,  coordinate the actions of rangers, mahouts, and local community members and provide them with the training and equipment needed to support the protection of the NPA and its wild elephant population. 

DEDH also helps devise safety plans to protect existing wild elephants and release captive elephants to reinforce the declining wild elephant population in the NPA.

Partnering with Objectif Science International, the objective is for communities who traditionally depend on the unsustainable exploitation of the NPA to derive their income from the management of the NPA and scientific tourism. 

Eurofins Foundation's contribution helped DEDH purchase equipment, computers and office furniture for rangers. It also helped fund a week-long training for rangers.

Beyond supporting the rangers, Eurofins Foundation has positively benefitted 60 wild Asian elephants and all other species living in the NPA (nebula panther, gaur, muntjac, hornbill, collared bear, tortoise, reptiles, macaques, gibbon, civet, langur, serow) as well as 192.000 Ha of mixed Deciduous Tropical Forest.

Indirect beneficiaries include approximately 3.500 people living in 8 villages spread around the NPA, as they are now better protected from crop-raiding elephants threatening their fields. The forest resources they rely on for survival and trade (NTFPs) are better protected from illegal exploiters. Protected flora and fauna is better protected from poachers too, contributing to the attractiveness of the NPA as a potentially strong ecotourism destination that can eventually help develop the local economy.

In 2022/2023, the Eurofins Foundation supported the transition of the Elephant Conservation Center (ECC) from a tourism-sustained model towards an Education, COnservation and REsearch sustained-model: ECORE

The ECC has an extensive experience in the field of conservation, education and scientific research (with past and ongoing research projects implemented with the Smithsonian Institution (USA), IRD (France) and other international research agencies and universities), motivating this transition.

Since the start of the project, infrastructure development has started and several major milestones have been reached :

• 11 rangers and 12 elephant caretakers have followed a course on patrolling, sample collection, first aid and mapping at the ECC;
• 30 students from the 5th year of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, National University of Laos (NUOL) have attended a course on elephant vetcare;
• A Memorandum of understanding was signed between ECC and NUOL;
• An agreement was signed between ECC and France-based Insitut de Recherche et de Developpement (IRD) to screen research projects and establish a joint Scientific Committee;
• A PhD student from the University of Kyoto and a Veterinary surgeon from France will both apply for field study time within the ECORE facility by 2024;
• A Veterinary workshop including 8 participants took place between the 4th-7th December 2023 at ECORE/ECC;
• The ECORE programme is advertised by the Conservation Biology Laboratory of the Smithsonian Institution, Elephant Care International and Work4Wildlife.

In 2023/2024, the Eurofins Foundation continued to provide funding to this initiative.

Dr Alba Abad leads Engage Nepal With Science. She is a life science researcher at the Welcome Centre for Cell Biology (University of Edinburgh). Today, ENwS represents a strong collaboration between her university and Nepal's Research Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology.

ENwS has been working with Nepalese communities since 2019, aiming to empower and build confidence in STEM.

In 2021/2022, the Eurofins Foundation provided financial support to Engage Nepal With Science and the project "Connecting the Climate Challenge: Partnering Communities in Scotland and Nepal to tackle the climate crisis". 

Through this project, ENwS aims to digitally partner communities in Nepal and Scotland.

Nepal is directly impacted by climate change but still underdeveloped in terms of green behaviours. On the other hand, Scotland is dedicated to taking measures to decelerate climate change while not being not as affected by it. This project will allow participants to learn from each other's experiences and work together to find solutions to protect the environment.

For example, students have observed microorganisms in drinking water all over Nepal. As a result, they are now boiling the water before drinking it and encouraging their communities to do so. So far, 1.500 persons were directly positively impacted by the project just considering the students and teachers, with a snowball effect to their families and communities.

Primary and secondary school pupils from different (remote) climate areas in Scotland and Nepal are the project's primary audience, acting as entry points to the broader community. The project is already working with 20 schools.

The support from the Eurofins Foundation helped extend the impact of the project to 20 schools more (10 in Scotland and 10 in Nepal). The funds were used to develop environmental science-kits that were donated to the schools to perform science experiments assessing causes and effects of climate change.

It has also helped ENwS organise an event in Nepal for schools to network, share, reflect and discuss the climate crisis and how to tackle it both locally and globally through environmental engagement. The funds also enabled ENwS to work with Scottish and Nepali artists to create artwork and foster conversation and engagement on the topic of climate change.

Thanks to this project, 60% of the student participants show a more optimistic view for the future of the climate and 25% of students demonstrated an increased knowledge of climate change issues.

In 2023/2024, the Eurofins Foundation renewed its support to this project, allowing ENwS to reach more schools in Scotland and Nepal.

In 2024-2025, the Eurofins Foundation is contributing to the project “WildRange: Enhancing Habitats, Empowering Communities.”

This is a multi-partner project to create a vast wildlife corridor in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, connecting habitat for rhino, elephant, cheetah, and other at-risk species, while uplifting impoverished communities. While the landscape has high biodiversity, low human population density, and minimal poaching, it has been fragmented by centuries of farming. Progress is well underway: from individual farmsteads to registered nature reserves, many landowners are pursuing official protected area status and will soon be dropping boundary fences. 

Additionally, local communities suffer from the legacy of oppression under apartheid and lack employment, education, housing, and water. All aspects of the project will simultaneously benefit marginalised communities, as well as biodiversity. One critically important component of the project will focus on removing highly invasive prickly pear cacti from the landscape and turning the cactus into functional products: (1) bricks for housing and (2) pellets for wildlife during times of drought, providing marginalised community members with skills, entrepreneurship training and direct employment.

The organisation's objectives are to advocate for environmental education, conservation; waste pickers’ humanisation and gender inclusivity; waste diversion, transformations, and zero-waste options; climate actions and environmental justice; environmental pollution of urban rivers and water bodies; public and environmental health; and women’s issues.

In 2023/2024, the Eurofins Foundation is contributing to the Zero Waste School project.

Mazingira Plus aims to initiate and implement a zero-waste school programme in Dar es Salaam public schools. The programme intends to enhance waste management systems in primary and secondary schools in five municipalities by 2030. They will build a simple structure by using recycled materials collected from community and beach clean-ups to build a material recovery facility at the schools, allowing students to sort waste based on its typologies (recyclable, organic, domestic hazardous, and residual waste).

By 2030, the programme aims to:

• Deepen understanding of resource circularity and waste best practices in Dar es Salaam schools;
• Raise awareness of and change behaviour around plastic pollution in Dar es Salaam schools;
• Improve waste sorting structure and removal systems by service providers in Dar es Salaam Schools;
• Make school environments greener through the Green Schools Program.

The Trust’s work includes environmental education for sustainability programmes around freshwater and marine environments with young people and students across the Greater Wellington region.

In 2021/2022, the Eurofins Foundation supported the “Love Rimurimu Restoration project”, a collaborative effort to pilot the regeneration of rimurimu (seaweed) forests in Whanganui-a-tara, New Zealand.

Due to anthropogenic activities and global changes, temperate kelp forests are declining, particularly on urbanised coasts.

In Wellington Harbour, kelp forests provide vital ecosystem services. They also have significant cultural and social values for Māori and the wider community. However, these forests have been degraded due to various stressors and are reducing in range and diversity of species present.

The Mountains To Sea Wellington Trust initiated the project, supported by science expertise and local government, industry, community and mana whenua interests. This initiative will trial effective seaweed regenerative methodologies, learn from and share the outcomes, and engage widely with the community.

The Eurofins Foundation’s funding supported the collection of critical baseline data to help begin to ascertain the extent of seaweed cover loss in the Wellington harbour, and build understanding of where MTSW could focus its regeneration efforts.

With the funding, MTSW engaged the Victoria University Coastal Ecology Lab to undertake 6 monitoring surveys measuring the cover of seaweed species and associated biota.

The funding also supported research into marine heat wave simulations in the lab. The ability of seaweeds to be resilient in the face of warming seas will be crucial. The information collected, alongside a building body of knowledge will help further research into this area.

In addition to Eurofins Foundation’ support, Eurofins New-Zealand was involved in the project, providing a good sounding board for local laboratory techniques and opportunities.

In 2022/2023, the Eurofins Foundation renewed its support to this initiative, focusing on Education, Community Outreach and Internships. Funding contributed to:

• Engagement with schools:Three classes engaged in 2022/23 from Kura Kaupapa Māori schools – over 80 students who identify as Māori.
  • Two further mainstream schools assisted with the gathering of ‘green gravel’ rocks which are then inoculated with the seaweeds for outplanting.
  • A Love Rimurimu Immersion Day held in September 2023 and co-lead with Taranaki Whānui, the kura and Mountains To Sea Wellington team.
  • Eight students trained as ‘Kura Kelpers’ - a monitoring and restoration team made up of senior students who are directly involved in monitoring seaweeds and assisting with plant-outs.
  • Students lead the first seaweed plant-outs at Kakariki Bay in September 2023.
• Engagement with the community:
  • Five Community Snorkel Days were held with over 600 participants and a strong focus on education on seaweeds and their importance at both marine protected, and unprotected sites.
• Internships & traineeships:
  • The development of a kaimanga (internship) role within the project with the guidance of Kaiwhakahaere Māori (Māori manager) and support from the wider MTSW team.
  • These roles have enabled great progress in supporting the use of the maramataka (traditional calendar/lunar phases) and its integration into the project plant-outs, the reinvigoration of original place names and the knowledge contained within them, and also the use of natural fibres and reducing waste in plant-out techniques.

The Eurofins Foundation renews its support to the Love Rimurimu project for the period 2023/2025.

Since its foundation, Ocean Alliance has pioneered many of the benign research techniques commonplace in whale science today, including photo ID and bioacoustics.

More recently, they have gained a reputation for pioneering drone technology in whale science, which are rapidly becoming an increasingly common and powerful tool in this field. Through their SnotBot programme and, more recently, their tagging work, they have helped to push whale science/conservation into the 21st century.

In 2022/2023, the Eurofins Foundation supported the deployment of tags on whales using drones through two objectives:

• Developing new systems:
  • A robust ‘whale surrogate’ for more advanced testing was developed, and this involved melting and casting ballistic gels into shapes and forms more accurately reflecting a whale.
  • A gyro-stabilized system to stabilize the fall of the tag when it is released from the drone.
  • A ‘swing-arm release’ system that decreases the possibility of the drop mechanism failing.
  • A compact packing system for the radio transmitter gear (battery, radio receiver, antennae, on/off switch) to make it easier to attach/detach.
  • A quick-release/hot-swap modular attachment system.
  • Rather than changing the drone setup each time a different tag is dropped, Ocean Alliance designed a one-size-fits-all modular attachment that permanently fits the drone, and other tags can attach to the module.
     
• Deploying advancements in the field (some examples):
  • North Atlantic right whales: In June 2023, Ocean Alliance deployed eight tags on critically endangered North Atlantic right whales as part of a NOAA/federal research trip. This expedition was a cornerstone of the government’s efforts to understand and protect this species. Bad weather during the trip prevented the NOAA team from deploying their small boat, severely limiting how much data they could collect during the expedition. The ability to fly the drone and deploy tags from the large vessel was invaluable.
  • Fin whales: In July 2023, Ocean Alliance worked with Duke University and Syracuse University to tag fin whales off Massachusetts’s coast. This trip aimed to understand better how offshore wind energy development might impact endangered fin whales. They ended up deploying a total of 28 data tags on fin whales. This is one of the most extensive data sets ever collected on fin whales globally in a two-week period.
  • Hawai’i: In February 2023, Ocean Alliance field tested a new system for disentangling large whales using drones. Whales becoming entangled in fishing lines/ropes/nets is a big problem. In response to the problem, disentanglement teams were created to cut the whales free. However, this is difficult and potentially dangerous. Ocean Alliance is exploring using drones to make whale disentanglement activities safer and more They worked with one of the world’s foremost experts on whale disentanglement – Dr. Ed Lyman and trialed several systems for using drones to assist in whale disentanglement activities. As part of this, they deployed five data tags on whales.
     

The Eurofins Foundation renews its support to Ocean Alliance in 2023/2024 to keep developing the research on whale tagging.

The Inga Foundation grew out of a long-term scientific research project into slash-and-burn agriculture and the need to find an alternative agriculture system that could save farmers from having to clear new areas of rainforest year after year, just to survive.

The Inga Foundation now works to help communities and farmers in Honduras, as well as in other humid tropics, to shift from slash-and-burn to the tried and tested alternative system that emerged from years of dedicated research: Inga Alley-Cropping.

Inga Alley-Cropping involves planting the nitrogen-fixing tree species from the genus Inga in hedgerows. The ability of the resilient Inga tree to regenerate the steepest and most degraded land and enrich depleted soil dramatically can transform lives and landscapes. Alleys survive the most severe climate shocks of heat, drought, and hurricanes. Inga Alley-Cropping yields 100% food-security in basic grains, together with a reliable income from organic cash-crops, and a critical resource--renewable firewood from the annual pruning of the trees.

Inga Alley-Cropping also significantly reduces global carbon emissions, protects wildlife and marine habitats, saves standing trees, and preserves water sources with no negative impact whatsoever.

In 2024-2025, the Eurofins Foundation is contributing to the project “Land for Life--organic, regenerative agroforestry with the Inga Tree Model.”

Working in communities located on steep terrain in the many river catchments of Northern Honduras, this project will add up to 40 new families to the Inga Alley-Cropping system, providing training and helping with establishing tree nurseries and planting. In addition, families who began the system two years prior will be assisted with their first pruning by providing each family with ample firewood for a year, plus surplus to sell or trade.

One of UBC's leading research centres, the BioProducts Institute (BPI), is an innovative ecosystem of high-impact fundamental and applied researchers working on solutions to today’s climate and environmental challenges. The Institute brings together inter- and multi-disciplinary researchers comprised of scientists, engineers, and market and policy experts to unlock the full potential of materials, chemicals and fuels produced in nature. Based on the guiding principles of circularity, sustainability and renewability, BPI seeks to reduce society’s footprint and tackle rampant environmental challenges such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and plastic waste.  

In 2023/2024, the Eurofins Foundation is contributing to the BPI’s research on Advancing Sustainable Energy Storage with Bioproduct Materials: A Path Towards Cleaner Energy in British Columbia. 

Traditional energy storage materials used in batteries often come from fossil fuels, which can harm the environment during the extraction process and as they degrade. By using bioproducts, particularly lignin derived from plants, BPI aims to create energy storage materials that are not only effective but also kind to our planet.

Lignin, a natural material found in plants, possesses unique properties that make it an ideal candidate for energy storage components. It's abundant, environmentally friendly, and has qualities like thermal stability and biodegradability. However, its potential has been largely untapped, with only a small fraction of useful products leveraging it.

BPI aims to transform lignin from bark residues, a byproduct of industries like paper manufacturing, into powerful energy storage components. The project will also study the physicochemical properties of these components, comparing them to traditional fossil-based materials. BPI aims to integrate these lignin-based materials into supercapacitors and battery cells, evaluating their performance and effectiveness.