Communication as a tool for more effective mainstreaming

Planning communication aspects of a mainstreaming exercise can help to make the interventions more effective. After planning of what we want to change and how - we plan the communication. In the first exercise we should limit ourselves to the essence otherwise - because of too many trees we do not see the forest - and we cannot be strategic. The two planning templates show the first fuzzy attempt and the next stepo towareds clarity. The next step below shows what the results are for communication planning.

Change starts with experience and belief

Mainstreaming interventions at the action and result level are difficult when they are not supported on the level of experience and belief. L’Orient le Jour reports in an article today about conservation organizations in Lebanon trying to find support for the implementation of a hunting law that regulates hunting and aims to address illegal hunting and the massacring of domestic and migrating birds. In the press the conservation efforts are pictured as an anti-hunting front. Hunting is very popular for men in Lebanon, who already as youngsters get their first hunting rifle. Without offering the experience of nature in a different way, and without changing the belief that hunting proves your masculinity, it will be difficult to find enough police to make an impact on the bird populations.

A cup of coffee: mapping impacts

Things caused by a cup of coffee. That was the header. My attention this morning was attracted by the map. The article looked at conservation from an interesting perspective: some species are directly threatened by coffee growing. Global consumption and trade of a variety of products has an impact on biodiversity. And the gap between North and South becomes clear on the interactive map developed by the university of Sydney. For me an illustration of the power of maps and timelines as tools for communication and (adult) learning. Just surfing over the map shows how a consumption in a country threatens species elsewhere and what species are threatened in this country by international trade.