This month, we are delighted to feature a guest blog from Tanya Kenrick, General Manager of The European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA). Nikwax has worked closely with EOCA since the charity’s foundation in 2006, providing funding for grassroots conservation, protection, and regeneration projects around the world. Please read on to discover more about our very special partnership…
EOCA is a conservation charity based in the European outdoor industry. It currently has over 130 member companies and Nikwax was one of the first to sign up when the association was founded in 2006. Members provide funds to the association through membership fees and fundraising activities, which EOCA then directs to hands-on conservation projects around the world. EOCA is truly unique in working with an entire industry to give back to nature.
By working together, EOCA, Nikwax and other members have funded nearly €6 million of conservation work around the world, supporting over 200 projects in 65 countries. All projects mitigate against climate change and tackle our world’s loss of biodiversity, as well as connecting people and communities to nature to build a meaningful legacy.
Every year, dozens of not-for-profits apply to EOCA for project funding. Their applications go through a rigorous assessment process, including being reviewed for environmental impact by a panel of scientific advisors, and a shortlist is put to an online public vote. This shortlist in turn goes to an EOCA membership vote.
Projects we have funded to date with the support of Nikwax and our other members include establishing cycling routes in Romania and South Africa to raise awareness of threatened landscapes via ecotourism; clearing plastic pollution from different environments alongside paddle boarders, hikers, surfers and skiers; restoring, replanting and protecting forests in Scotland, Sweden, France, Indonesia, Spain; and conserving the habitats of bears in Italy and Spain, red squirrels in the UK, orangutans in Borneo and elephants in Thailand.
In 2024 alone, EOCA supported an impressive 11 global conservation projects. From funding the planting of 65,000 seedlings across Colombia and Indonesia to help protect endangered White Tamarin monkeys and Sumatran orangutans, to cleaning up litter and single use plastic from the mountains of Italy and Switzerland in conjunction with 4,500 outdoor enthusiasts, to removing 10 tons of metal from abandoned military, industrial and tourist infrastructures in the French mountains, EOCA is making a real difference to global conservation efforts.
As well as being an active and valued member of EOCA, Nikwax has played further critical roles over the years. The company’s founder, Nick Brown, was on our board for many years, contributing to the strategic development of the association. In 2015, Nikwax stepped up again and became a Sustaining Member of EOCA. Sustaining Members believe passionately in maintaining healthy environments and recognise that the outdoor industry can make a major contribution to promoting and caring for wild spaces and their fauna and flora. They also understand that EOCA provides a mechanism to enable the industry to collectively do this, which requires resources. Every year since 2015, Nikwax and EOCA’s other Sustaining Members have each contributed a further €10,000 annually to help finance the running and growth of the charity.
We are hugely thankful to the team at Nikwax for their long-term partnership and support, which has generated an additional €100,000 for EOCA over 10 years. From raising awareness of our charity and conservation issues to taking part in project selection processes to providing strategic and financial support, Nikwax is helping us to maximise our impact around the world.
To discover more about EOCA and its work, and to take part in the project votes held in spring and autumn each year, please sign up to the EOCA newsletter here.
