It might have been a rough and crude research method, but public donations at a local Grill’d burger joint might just be an indicator of the priorities the community within the UNESCO Western Port Biosphere Reserve in Victoria’s south place on program priorities for the foundation responsible for it.

The Grill’d Frankston franchise runs a Local Community Matters charity collection each month. It runs three collection boxes at its eatery, usually for three different organisations, but in February chose to dedicate its three boxes to the Western Port Biosphere Reserve Foundation.

The three boxes carried distinct themes and messages aligned to the foundation’s active programs:

• Save Western Port’s wetlands and migratory birds - Help 20,000 migratory birds that rely on our internationally recognised wetlands every year for food, shelter and breeding. Your donation will support community programs to preserve and restore these special habitats.

• Climate action – Help tackle climate change by donating to research into how we can capture and store carbon in mangroves, seagrasses and saltmarsh in our coastal wetlands.

• Biodiversity in Schools – Help teach kids in our local schools about the importance of protecting and caring for our environment, habitat and animals. Your donation will enable us to expand our schools program to reach more kids.

So what came out on top as people dropped their tokens into the boxes. The Grill’d staff have better things to do than count tokens, so the result was approximated by Grill’d Frankston Manager, Tamara D'Cruze:

1. Climate action - about 600 tokens

Eq 2. Save wetlands/birds - between 300 and 400 tokens

Biodiversity in Schools - between 300 and 400 tokens

While certainly not a definitive piece of research with multiple unknown variables, the token counts suggest that climate action is the top of mind environmental concern within the community of burger eaters. Subsequent polling associated with Australia’s Federal Election suggests the Grill’d customers are pretty much aligned with the general population in wanting positive climate action.

What the Grill’d customers perhaps didn’t realise is that saving the wetlands and biodiversity of the Western Port Biosphere Reserve may soon be one of the biggest actions that can be taken to mitigate the impact of carbon emissions.

That is the subject of a substantive piece of research led by the Biosphere Foundation in partnership with the South-East Councils Climate Change Alliance (SECCCA) and Deakin University’s world-class Blue Carbon Lab.

The results of that research will provide a roadmap for future investment in carbon capture in Western Port and the eastern flank of Port Phillip Bay through the preservation and restoration of the Biosphere Reserve’s mangrove, seagrass and saltmarsh marine ecosystems.

We often say “put your money where your mouth is” to test the depth of people’s convictions. Perhaps grilling survey participants this way is the research method of the future?

Click here for more information on the Western Port Biosphere Reserve Foundation’s blue carbon program.