Three professionals from across the Conservation sector providing some top tips on how to engage effectively and reminding us of how important it is to engage!
In the fifth episode of The Hive, we take a look at the importance of engagement to Conservation. As usual, the episode features guests carrying out interesting and innovative work across the sector, who provided us with tips on how to engage effectively, as well as providing context on how engagement can help the aims and objectives on Conservation projects and organisations.
We kicked off this episode by talking to Julia Migne; Director of Conservation Optimism. Mollie and I highly recommend you check their website and resources out, we have particularly enjoyed using the Positive Communication Toolkit in all of our engagement interventions since we found it!
Julia underlined the importance of solutions-based journalism, avoiding the pitfalls of stoking a negative response in our audiences. For example, by sharing news of a species heading towards extinction – but not providing a way in which the audience can help to prevent the loss, or the loss of similar species, or even sharing the work of the scientists who are trying to change the situation for the better. Stories which underline the realities of the state of species and ecosystems, but provide balance in which people can change or do more to help, are much more effective. Julia also provided some great practical tips in the Episode, for those looking to engage with visitors to nature reserves – which would apply to new audiences of any type.
Our next guest was Sammy Brisdon, who works with Mollie on the Leave Only Footprints campaign in Bournemouth, Dorset (UK). Sammy has worked across the world, delivering Environmental Education to different types of audiences. Sammy spoke to us about the growing use of Conservation Psychology, as well as means of effective and ineffective communications – how to make better use of what time and resources that we have, in order to get our messages across much more effectively! Sammy is a regular speaker for the Plover Rovers, a community of volunteers whose aim is to bring bring together Coastal Communities and Marine Scientists.
Our third and final guest for this episode is Lucy McRobert! Author of 365 Days Wild and former Communications Manager for The Wildlife Trusts, Lucy is now an in-demand Freelance Wildlife Storyteller and very active member of the Conservation Sector, having also founded A Focus on Nature.
Lucy talked to us about the importance of training staff to engage effectively, avoiding pitfalls such as handing your social media output to an inexperienced intern. We discussed how effective engagement is critical to Conservation efforts going forward, and how we can thread principles of storytelling through everything we put out in any form, which should provoke greater connections with our underlying messaging.
Lucy and our other guests, are professionals in the Conservation sector, who have built up knowledge and experience in effective engagement, their insights provide us all with a much better understanding of how we can refine our own techniques in order to get a better response. So whether that is decreasing disturbance to wading birds by more effectively encouraging people to stick to pathways, or getting people to make different decisions in the supermarket – being mindful of our messaging and thinking more about how people absorb information – as opposed to jumping to what we want them to do, can help us all across the Conservation sector, to work more effectively. We hope you enjoyed this episode!
The Hive Podcast 