The Body Shop’s new Bio-Bridges initiative aims to regenerate 75 million square meters of forest around the world and protect it from exploitation, poaching and unsustainable harvesting by 2020.

Every customer transaction at The Body Shop through the end of August will restore and protect one square metre of habitat in the forest.

The Body Shop unveiled the campaign to the public on May 24th by transforming Westminster Bridge in London into a pseudo-Bio-Bridge with five 6-foot tall monkey topiaries to resemble Reggie, a mythical Red-Shanked Douc from Vietnam that will be the consumer face of the initiative.

A campaign to “Help Reggie Find Love” gives customers the opportunity to directly support the project and follow Reggie throughout his journey to find a mate with the help of the new Bio-Bridges.

What are Bio-Bridges?

Bio-Bridges regenerate and reconnect corridors between healthy rainforest, linking deforested or degraded lands, so isolated and endangered plant species can regenerate, and animals can safely reconnect to breed and thrive again.

Saving Vietnam’s Rare Species

The Khe Nuoc Trong forest, in North Central Vietnam, is the company’s first project. It is home to rare species such as the Red Shanked Douc, Saola (known as the Asian Unicorn and one of the rarest animals on earth), Bengal Slow Loris and Burmese Python. These species are threatened by hunting for food and medicine and illegally logged with nearby habitats still suffering from the effects of Agent Orange used during the Vietnam War.

Christopher Davis, The Body Shop’s Director of Corporate Responsibility and Campaigns said, “We want to focus on actively enriching the world’s biodiversity. These areas of forest in Vietnam are biological treasure troves that are being destroyed through poaching and illegal logging. Bio-Bridges are an innovative way to create protected corridors of biodiversity that allow the wider forest to flourish and its inhabitants to breed and thrive. In Vietnam, within 5 to 10 years we hope to be able to see endangered species multiply.”

The Body Shop will work with World Land Trust and its partner, Vietnam-based Viet Nature Conservation Centre, to protect the area and its wildlife through regular patrolling and utilizing camera-traps.