index

BLOCK
02 THE ANALYSIS
The journalists´ experience
The Natura 2000 Network is born with very scarce or no social participation
at all in in its creation and definition stages. What is even worse,
the public authorities, pressed for time, are not promoting social participation
in the making of those management plans that will set out which
activities will or won´t be allowed in the sites. The network has been
dealt a hand of marked cards that force it to be, at the same time, the
most important nature conservation instrument of the European Union
and an opportunity for social and economic development on the basis of
conservation itself. Besides, it was born without direct funding, without
an EU budget that may allow it to reach its objectives.
A communication and marketing plan
It seems obvious that the first thing the public administrations with
powers to manage the Natura 2000 Network must do is designing a
communication plan that establishes objectives, identifies target audiences,
elaborates adequate messages for each of those audiences, designs
tools and channels to reach audiences, makes a calendar of actions
to be undertaken and, once and for all, allots the necessary money for
implementing all that.
This communication plan should take into account the experiences, studies,
needs and particularities of each of the autonomous communities
to integrate them into a common project, an information point of reference
on everything related to the Natura 2000 Network - at least from an
administrative point of view.
Complementarily, the next necesary step seems to be a marketing plan
to make the most of the network; for the development of its own products,
guaranteed by a brand, and the selling of those products.
Without planning it is impossible to reach all these objectives. The scattered
ideas and studies that the Natura 2000 Network has generated,
although they are in some cases valuable experiences, are often only
loose ends.
“The first thing the different Spanish public bodies with
powers in this matter should do is to design a communication
plan for the Natura 2000 Network”.
Communicate, Conect, Share, Talk, Cooperate and Create a Community
With this in mind, we have developed the only medium in Spain that
focuses on the Natura 2000 Network: www.rednatura2000.info. Our intention
is to report on everything that happens in 27% per cent of the
country´s territory, paying special attention to management good practices
that show how conserving the natural wealth contained in Natura
2000 is profitable and beneficial from a social, environmental and economic
point of view.
It is true that we are obviously very partial to the Network, that we see it
as a historic opportunity to show what sustainable development based
on the conservation of biodiversity is. We are sure that it is necessary
to conserve natural resources, but also that it is essential to manage
taking the broader view that includes the sustainable development of the
human settlements more directly linked to these sites. So we talk about
rural development, entrepreneurial initiative, land use and management,
species that inhabit it and opportunities to improve the living conditions
of the people who live in it...
We see very clearly that what lies behind each event are collective or
personal stories that make us feel identified with the territory we inhabit.
These stories are of special interest for us. So our task is to Communicate
what happens in this space, with a particular interest in positive
experiences, to Connect people, institutions, associations an interests
through the web and social networks, to Share objectives, information,
interests, work, experiences, feelings and emotions, to Talk with the
users and followers and to Collaborate with institutions, public authorities,
professionals, conservation and rural development associations
and media that help disseminating these values.
The final objective is to Create a Community. A COMMUNITY committed
to the sustainable development of its territory, that sees production and
conservation as two sides of the same coin, teamwork as essential, the
contribution and participation in site management of the people who live
in it as a basic tenet, who believes that without people it is very difficult to
do conservation work and that social, open, democratic and committed
participation is a requisite for the sustainable development of territories
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Natura 2000 Network. Handbook for journalists