Getting involved

Biodiversity in action

How do you create biodiversity and how can it help to reduce climate change?

Check it out

Three stories

Melbourne Girls College: Building a Frog Bog

Laurimer Primary School: creating a butterfly garden.

We found out that a way to improve biodiversity was by planting native plants. To do this, we also worked with a local indigenous elder and people in the community.

First we did a Biodiversity audit of the school grounds. We then developed an ‘Action Plan’ to improve biodiversity. That’s when we came up with the idea of creating a Butterfly Garden.

Everyone was given indigenous plants that attract butterflies, so that they could also create butterfly gardens in their own backyards. This way we created a ‘corridor’ of butterfly habitat through Laurimer. Butterflies can now move around, feeding, resting and reproducing in their natural habitat.

The project was a great way to find out about the lifecycle of butterflies and their importance as pollinators in the environment. It also taught everyone about the local Indigenous people, the Wurundjeri, and indigenous plants and their value as habitat for native birds, animals and especially insects.

Everyone who took part shared photos of their home gardens and took part in butterfly art and craft activities.

Try this:

Take photos of butterflies in your backyard and your school garden, then send them to us. We will put them in our photo gallery and blog for everyone to admire!

How biodiversity mops up Carbon Dioxide

Ever wondered how nature mops up our greenhouse gases? Or how much carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) you create or ‘emit’ each day?

Four schools in Gippsland, Victoria decided to find out…

We did a survey to find out the distance everyone travelled to school, the method used (e.g. car, bus), the vehicle size and each family’s car fuel type.

First we worked out the tonnes of carbon dioxide gas or ‘emissions’ created by this travel and in the classroom. We all talked about the ways we could change our travel habits to reduce our Carbon Footprint and also reduce the energy we used in the classroom and at home.

Here is what we found:

Travel by bus, walk or ride a bike instead of being driven.
Set the classroom temperature so that it doesn’t need to be changed.
Switch off lights and appliances when not in use.
Wear the right layers of clothing to suit the daily temperature and the season.

Next, we worked together to plant or ‘revegetate’ an area at Marlay Point, Lake Wellington.

Over 3 days, we:

Helped to plant 2,500 plants.
Helped to revegetate about 1 hectare of land (which is roughly the same size as a baseball field!)
Discovered we had planted a ‘Biodiverse Carbon plantation’. This means that what we planted absorbs CO₂ but also creates a diversity of species including wildflowers and shrubs, as well as a home for birds, animals and insects.