1.Front section - IUCN

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Friends for Life: New partners in support of protected areas
● Apply systems thinking concepts to generate a
sustainable transformation of the way individuals,
institutions, and societies view and manage
resources (Hilbrunner, 2003).
For IUCN’s Commission on Education and
Communication (CEC), communication is defined
as “a ‘listening and dialogue’ intervention, using a
wide range of media to help change an existing
undesirable situation into a desired situation for
biodiversity conservation. In this process the intent is
to change actions, which may come with a change in
attitudes, values, and perceptions, of the target
group, with the ultimate effect that biodiversity is
conserved or used sustainably” (Hesselink, 2003).
Strategic communication provides appropriate
interventions in different phases of the policy,
management plan, or project that are oriented to
crafting solutions together and supporting other
instruments. Communication is strategic when it
does not decide on means first, but rather seeks to
define the communication problem, the appropriate
groups to work with, the messages to attract them to
work together and then the means. Strategic
communication is focused on priority conservation
or management issues and supports the objectives of
these. It is targeted and designed to deliver a specific
outcome: increase in support or awareness, new
constituencies and partnerships, participation of key
stakeholders, acceptable policy or management
plans, development of local capacity for comanagement,
and investment in social change
(Hamú, 2003).
For others, “strategic communication is to…
maintain a dialogue among the stakeholders to
facilitate a platform of information, motivation and an
enabling environment for decision making (choices)
at the individual and social levels” (Vidal, 2003).
Conservation International’s conservation
awareness efforts aim to inform and inspire key
audiences ultimately to change their behaviour in
favor of biodiversity conservation. This behavioural
change can take many forms and is specific to the
targeted public involved, though it is recognised that
in many cases, awareness alone cannot change
behaviour. Instead, a portfolio of other conservation
tools must come into play – such as economic
incentives or effective policy changes – for the final
behaviour change to be realized. Without
conservation awareness playing a part in this
portfolio, however, the stakeholders involved may
lack the motivation or information necessary to make
sound decisions and put conservation into practice
(Castro, 2003).
Conservation International (CI) defines
conservation awareness as incorporating two distinct
but complementary approaches: communications and
environmental education (EE). Communications
often seek to reach a large number of people, quickly,
on a broad regional scale via television, radio, print
publications, and campaigns. Through research into
identifying sources of information for key audiences
and the use of carefully crafted messages, mass
communication can be far-reaching, fast acting, and
locally targeted. It is an especially efficient way to
reach large numbers of people when an issue is urgent
(Castro, 2003).
In order for a conservation message to be heard
among the information “noise,” a campaign must
gather momentum and have well-timed “peaks and
valleys” within its outreach. In the case of smaller
communities, organizing events can reach large
percentages of the population and ensure good
participation among target publics. Campaigns create
media opportunities, allowing journalists to find more
fodder for stories and features and address specific
challenges or threats. Campaigns can target multiple
audiences, helping to “condition” audiences to receive
more specific, tailored messages later. Since
campaigns are organized within a time frame they
help concentrate efforts and to rally partners and
donors around a specific theme or need. The
launching of documentaries may play an important
role as the centre piece of campaigns, gathering
hundreds of key stakeholders together. If a partnership
can be created with a local television station, the
documentary may be broadcast to a larger public,
reaching, in large countries, millions of people
(Castro, 2003).
Environmental education supplements this process
by going beyond awareness, knowledge and concern
for the environment and environmental issues, to also
develop skills for target groups to participate in
problem solving, decision making, and conservation
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