Listening to users is a first step when developing a new e-course.
To develop the new frogleaps course
on storytelling to trigger action for conservation, we did not only research
the literature, but also did a few surveys on line and through skype and
telephone. To articulate the demand, to map existing experiences with
storytelling and to generate stories of successful campaigns. Through three
mailings we reached about a hundred experts and received feedback from about
forty respondents. In this blog article we
present some highlights from our findings.
Stories to friends and colleagues about the business
we are in
What stories do conservation
communicators tell about their job during a birthday party? Most of them tell
funny or unusual anecdotes. About the similarities between animals and human
beings. About the amazing and successful reintroduction of a species that was
thought be extinct. The indigenous knowledge that helped save a conservation
issue. The awe and wonder we experience in a national park or when we see a bee
pollinating an fruit tree. The links between nature and our health. The many
things we can learn from nature. To fight the extinction of species living in
our backyard, as every species is worthy of our effort, and each has a right to
flourish. One respondent engaged in education answered:
My typical party’s story it is that instead of answering the question about
my job, I start talking about my ‘private’ forest. I am living in a place where
the forest is “invading” my rooms through the open doors. I tell funny stories
about different adventures with
biodiversity: field mice cutting
the wires of my computer, bats hanging in the corner of my wardrobe etc. Then
after my funny stories people usually
start telling their own adventures with animals even in city flats. After some of their stories I am able to the
answer question – what is my job? My job is to provoke people into talking
about their experience with nature very close to us. I am doing it in my books and radio play. But
everybody can do it: simply chatting
with friends or co-passengers in the train. Such conversations about one’s own
experience with nature makes people think about nature as an important part of
their life.
Most respondents
stressed the importance of telling something personal that touches the emotions
and invites the audience to react. One spiritually oriented respondent said it
in a very personal way:
I can tell it in the form of my private prayer to St
Francis from Assisi: “Holly St Francis,
I am predicating your message by cultivating my private reserve area in my
garden where I am protecting…weeds. Weeds may not be “nice”, but most of them
are medicine plants. Our grandmothers cured our wounds when we were young using
different weeds and leafs. Most weeds deserve protection not only because they are
used in native medicine, they are also food for birds and butterflies. Most of
all I am following Your instructions given to monastic brotherhood of
Franciscans to keep some parts of the gardens of the monastery uncultivated as a
place for wild creatures. Because all
God’s creation needs to be respected.” I hope that St Francis as holy patron of
ecology will treat my conservation project in the same way as my prayer.
Stories to local communities about conservation
What do you tell
local communities about conservation? Respondents referred to our dependence on
nature, the services it provides and how it enhances our lifestyle. One African
respondent tells:
Our natural resources and farming harvests are also
dependent on wildlife---birds, bees, butterflies, worms and wild animals. They
all support nature by pollinating, spreading seeds, revitalizing the soil and
creating a natural balance of predators and preys. Conservation is about
supporting the nature of nature to benefit your own life, income, and security.
Respondents also tell
about the need for local communities to manage their own environment, the
opportunities for extra income and the enhancing of their security and
resilience. The need to love their local nature: if we don’t who will? A
respondent from Europe says:
I am asking people to try to imagine their local
country as different species and habitats are disappearing one by one.
How will the neighborhood look like? How
are we able to manage our plantation
without bees and birds? How the
landscape had changed since their childhood ? What changes are good and what bad
for their heath and budget ? How it is possible to improve their life
conditions. What a role nature can play in it.
Then I am telling story about “talking golden fish” and what had
happened If somebody wish to remove
different elements of nature and what if
he wish to much only nice elements of
nature.
One respondent
mentioned that stories about what happened elsewhere can be a powerful to raise
awareness. E.g. when Chinese farmers in South Sichuan Province, the largest
producers of pears in that region of China, alerted their government to the
absence of bees and that the year's crop was endangered, the government's
unprecedented response was to insist on hand-pollination. This story
might be used to raise awareness that the use of pesticides for grain
production in the US or elsewhere may cause other (fruit) farmers to face the
same dilemma and may wonder if
this method will someday, too, be their fate.
Most effective stories
What stories about
conservation have motivated people to take action? Some respondents said that
experiencing nature is at the basis of a change in beliefs, attitudes and
finally behaviour. Stories can help to evoke such experiences. Respondents were
of the opinion that such stories either moved people emotionally or showed
direct impact on their well-being. A good story also should be close to the
experience and values of the audience. And nature should be presented with a
human dimension. An example is the story about the reintroduction of Lynx to
Masurian forest with the romantic title “born to be free”. One respondent wrote
us:
The Jungle Book by Kipling inspired me as a child. It
presents life of animals as adventures and makes them “human” in terms of
feelings and characters.
A French respondent
tells the story of the bat who returned by plane: A small bat that had departed from Germany fell down in a Spanish
school yard exhausted from fatigue. It was rescued by the school children and
sent by their teachers to a wildlife centre. It was fed and recuperated. The
Minister of Environment of that time paid the air plane ticket for the bat back
to Germany. This positive and amusing
story teaches important things:
About the
migration of bats, their measurements and weights, their capacity to travel far
despite the fact they are so small (children love to hear the heroic acts of small
beings, as it is an example for them.
About the
need for a habitat: trees in this case, more precisely dead trees in a forest
used by bats
About the
fact that children, adults and even a minister can help, each at his own
level and that in reality they have succesfully done so.
It provides a personal
satisfaction to know that somebody has helped another sentient being
somewhere. That is reassuring and triggers your wish to help when it is your
turn.
Respondents also pointed out that it makes
a difference who the audience is and who the story tells, e.g. for local
communities the person telling the story should preferably be another local. Quite
often these stories are partly fiction, but with a message based on a true
example. Many used comic books, radio or folk theatre to reach the local
audiences.
For the general
public it is important that campaign stories touch on emotions and humour. Stories appealing to health and budget are also
reported as motivating. Such stories can be connected to food from ecological farms. Women magazines
are a good channel for stories of young mothers about the relation between
organic food and the health of their children.
Most respondents have little experience with techniques
to make an effective story. Although they all stress the need for a positive
approach and a happy ending, they often have no conflicts in their stories nor any
heroes, villains or obstacles. Literature shows that a story with a conflict
which is resolved by the hero, is most effective to engage the audience and
communicate messages. One respondent from Meso America answered:
For me the heroes are the youth. The
villains are the ignorant who only think short term. The obstacles are the lack
of social capital and the happy ending is the fact that in this world there
exist people just like us who have realized innovations in conservation and
that you can do the same in the place where you live.
A French respondent
answered:
In the positive stories that I tell, there
are mainly heroes who act against the bad guys, but without elaborating on the
negative impacts of their acts. I like to keep it positive. There is a villain,
or a bad event, but the story is about the solution. The end is always happy or
partly happy when there is still hope to do more. The story is focused on
action. I give opportunities for action on different levels or difficulties depending
on the action perspectives for smaller or bigger issues.
A third respondent
referred to Chief Seattle’s 1851 response to the treaty to sell two million
acres to the USA:
“How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is
strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the
water, how can you buy them? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people.
Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every
clearing and humming insect is holy in the meaning and experience of my people.
The sap which courses through the trees carries the memory of the red man.”
Respondents also
refer to the importance of the mythology of cultures living in great dependence
from nature, as nature plays a predominant role in the stories of such cultures.
And the importance to ask local communities about the traditional fold stories
from their grandparents. One respondent from Africa says:
Stories are precious sources of experience and wisdom
concealed in the actors, their movements and happenings and the symbols
applied. Many symbols are universal, such as sun, moon, sea, water, tree, lion,
eagle etc. African stories are very much different from European, Arabic, and
Indian stories. As far as I have read them they are rougher and their symbols
and meanings sometimes hard to crack. I
don’t know whether European stories, such as fairy tales like Cinderella, are
suitable i.e., consciously and or unconsciously understandable and meaningful. Therefore, I ask local grandmothers to do the
storytelling of their tribes to the children.
A French respondent
answered that the best stories about doing the right thing come from the realm
of animals themselves, e.g. a whale that takes charge of an orphan whale at the
risk of her life as it is already difficult to feed and defend her own baby
whale; or a lioness that protects a herbivore orphan against other lions until
the time it is fully grown.
These examples from nature make a huge impression
on me as no one has taught these females to protect other small beings,
especially when they normally belong to their prey. It touches my maternal
fibres. It tells me that protecting life is encrypted in our genes, or at least
in female genes (even if men may feel the same inclination to such compassion
of course). In any case I do so without thinking: I had found a baby titmouse
that had fallen from its nest on the a Parisian sidewalk. I put the small bird
in a bush as high as possible and then phoned the Animal Welfare Organization
to know if I had done the right thing. They told me that actually you have to
put the bird back as high as possible in a tree to protect them against cats.
And they told me also that other passers-by could easily have trampled the
bird. I had difficulty to believe that. So I thought that we should circulate
each spring a brochure “how to protect a small bird fallen from its nest”, so
people could get the reflex do the right thing without thinking.
An e-learning course on storytelling: success factors
What would make the
course a success? Respondents stressed that the course should be short, fun and inspiring. It
should also demystify the CEC Love. Not Loss message. It should be based on
real life examples. It should provide users opportunities to interact and send
their stories in. It should provide tools that users can immediately apply.
Conclusions
There is a lot of experience in the CEC network. Members share the importance
of storytelling as an instrument for conservation. They have some degree of
knowledge of the main features of storytelling. There is a demand for a short course
on the various aspects of storytelling connected with examples from real life.
We thank all the respondents for their time and the sharing of their expertise
and experience. They will be mentioned in the colophon of the course that is due to be on line end of September.
