Sustainability

Our first project with WildArk takes place in the Nakanai Mountains in remote Papua New Guinea. The Tuke village is situated on the island’s central-eastern interior, surrounded by 42,000 acres of pristine virgin rainforest known as Tuke Rainforest Conservancy. The area boasts an extraordinary amount of biodiversity, with many species new to science.

The Tuke village is a relatively small community that practises a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and has maintained its traditional culture and way-of-life for thousands of years.

Tragically, illegal loggers are clearing enormous tracts of forest around the island. The local people are being exploited by the loggers who come into the villages offering very little return for a one-time resource of old-growth hardwood.

The Connoisseur Rainforest Project will sponsor the education of all secondary school children living in Tuke Village in 2021. We will also fund new desks and chairs for the village school, and build permanent housing for the school teacher in the village. To date, the town has been unable to keep a permanent teacher due to the lack of infrastructure available.

The Connoisseur Rainforest Project aims to ensure the Tuke community is engaged and benefits from protecting their rainforest. WildArk is working on a long-term plan to ensure the community can sustainably maintain their way of life and not fall victim to short-term compensation from loggers.

Connoisseur is making a conscious effort to ensure its packaging is recyclable. Currently our tubs, lids and cartons are all recyclable, whilst all of our wrappers are recyclable through the Redcycle program.

The wooden sticks from our stick products are FSC certified, sourced from logs that are traceable to sustainably managed forests and are 100% compliant with FSC regulations. Using wood that is compliant with FSC regulations ensure the highest respect for ecological, social and ethical standard.