Students from neighbouring schools and workers from Western Sydney airport have built new habitats for bees, butterflies and bugs to promote biodiversity – and support budding young scientists.
For the project, Western Sydney Airport (WSA) partnered with PlantingSeeds, a not-for-profit dedicated to educating students about supporting sustainability and biodiversity, to visit the schools.
The goal was to build a B&B Highway – bed and breakfasts for bees, butterflies and biodiversity.
WSA chief executive officer Simon Hickey said the partnership has seen students and WSA employees build 12 garden beds, plant more than 200 natives and install three native stingless beehives at Mulgoa, Wallacia, and Luddenham Public Schools.
“We are building an airport for Western Sydney’s future and a big part of that is being a good neighbour, giving back to our local community and ensuring that Western Sydney International Airport represents a commitment to future generations,” Mr Hickey said.
“These new insect bed and breakfasts will not only support local biodiversity, they give our aspiring young scientists the opportunity to learn about different species and to actually help the nation’s top scientists by collecting valuable data about insect habitats.
“Sustainability is a key consideration as we design and build the airport – having our employees get out and work with local students to create habitats for native fauna to thrive in our community is just one of the ways we are living our values.’’
Western Sydney International has 117 hectares of permanently protected Environmental Conservation Zones on the airport site, which will be used to conserve a habitat corridor for biodiversity surrounding the airport.
PlantingSeeds founder and chief executive Dr Judy Friedlander said local students were now collecting data from the habitats and uploading it to global databank iNaturalist and CSIRO’s Atlas of Living Australia to help scientists map out species distribution across Western Sydney.
“Citizen science is a key part of the B&B Highway program that involves identifying local species, planting to support them and assisting with building habitats.
“Students are actually identifying species and helping chief scientists across the nation track the regeneration of biodiversity,” Dr Friedlander said.
“This is citizen science in action and we value that an organisation like Western Sydney Airport is partnering with us and these schools to help build a thriving ecosystem.”
