Earth Day: Give Earth a Hand

Rethinking mobility, practicing slow life

Imagine a world without planes. The closing of most of the European airspace during the last six days - because of the eruption of a volcano in Iceland - faced Europe with the question how to cope without air transport. Ferries and trains were quickly sold out. Stranded tourists had to deal with inconsistent information. Importers of fresh fruit had to rethink their logistics. We environmentalists got stuck in an international meeting. We now have to rethink our conference habits and use the new media more strategically. I will practice slow life on my 17 hours train ride from Edinburgh to Utrecht. And with me many others.

Showing the link between people and nature

More than just some forest. That was the title of a picture of a British forest. The pay off was: Carbon store. Heat source. Playground. With powerful images and key words the 2020 vision for a wilder Britain was launched in Edinburgh at a reception for the UK Committee for IUCN. It was more convincing and to the point than any of the 20 power points shown during the day in the conference. Conservationist might want from now on to leave their power points home when they argue their case with non-experts in a ministry, an industry or the man in the street.

The fear to interact with stakeholders

Biodiversity experts from government and NGO have a similar fear to interact with stakeholders during an excursion in a workshop. You have to prepare them and push softly. They need to adapt to a new 'rationale', quite different from their normal professional interaction when they represent the law or gather scientific facts. Once they have overcome their initial 'cold water' fear, these interactions of probing into hopes and fears of daily life become meaningful. And afterwards they are perceived as the most successful parts of a workshop. Over the last 15 years I had exactly the same experiences in Latin America, Africa, Central Europe and now in Bangladesh. As facilitator you have to listen to all their objections and excuses in advance "why this part of the program is not appropriate and can disrupt already difficult relations". But keep in mind: perseverance will be rewarded!

Effective messaging

When determining the message content we also have to think what flavour, personality or association will be needed to have the desired effect on the audience. Musicians do this all the time. As this is Eastern, here are - thanks to YouTube - seven examples of the "Erbarme Dich" Aria from Bach's St Matthew Passion. And these are the 'flavours' I hear/see:
1. The awe for the distant divine (Eula Beal, Yehudi Menuhin, Antal Dorati, US late forties).
2. A subdued desperation about loss and mercy (Herbert von Karajan, Kathleen Ferrier, UK, late fifties).
3. A personal appeal for transparency, harmony and compassion (Julia Hamari, Karl Richter, Munich Bach Orchestre, late sixties).
4. The power and volume of musical performance and perfection over guilt and pity (Vladimir Spivakov and Tamara Sinyavskaya, Russia, late nineties) .
5. The quality of sound to evoke universal sympathy (Makiko Narumi, Japan, 2000)
6. Reading heartfelt sorrow from the score (Maureen Forrester, Antonio Janigro, I Musici di Zagreb, 1997).
7. The mystique of how it must have sounded in Bach’s time (Delphine Galou, Francois-Xavier Roth and Orchestre Les Siecles, France, 2009).

Communication management

When you have enough time with a protagonist, spokes person or a resource person, use the opportunity to reach out to different audiences through different media. Last year the Fundación Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente did just that: a lecture and workshop for the audiences of the Casa Encendida, interviews to newspapers and magazins, a professional dialogue with their staff and input for an educational video. UNED, the Spanish Distance Education Channel used the input for a module in a course on sustainable development: Verdades y mentiras sobre el cambio climatico. The title is inspired on the lecture I gave an hour after this interview. The video also features on YouTube.

Segment your audience

"We need to convince people about the importance of conservation". This was the first reaction of most respondents in a quick scan on communicating tiger conservation. Asked what key change agents could be, most came up with a further segmentation of 'people': villagers, forest department and politicians. One respondent even took a next step in segmentation: "we should identify the movers and shakers of key groups; communicate through them by framing the issue in terms that are relevant and functional for them". For me this would mean investing in target group research, dialogues and partnerships. And in deep listening when we talk to the various stakeholder groups. It reminds me of the change from a deficiency approach to a contextual approach:

Map proves PM wrong

"Natura 2000 impacts negatively the balance between ecology and economy." A few weeks ago our Prime Minister Balkenende wrote this to Barroso the Chair of the European Commission. He sketched a picture that Natura 2000 was a far too heavy obstacle to economic recovery and progress in our small country. In an article in one of our major newspapers two ecologists argue it is the other way around. They illustrate their point with a map. It shows the Dutch Natura 2000 sites in their European context. The sites cover just over 8% of our territory and are mostly water areas. Most of the land surface - where economic activities take place - is white. The few sites on land, the ecologists argue, are under heavy threat by nitrogen from agricultural activities. The map for me says more than the whole article.

Three examples of workshop preparation

The success is in the preparation. When a workshop is about public participation and you want to focus on impact it is good to articulate the demand. A workshop for staff of a sustainability institute is meant to update them on public participation and social marketing strategies. Telephonic interviews clarify the objectives of the management. An on line multiple choice test for staffs assesses current knowledge, attitudes and skills.
A UN workshop with representatives of government, academia, private sector and NGOs is meant to generate options for national policies and priorities for international action. A quick scan through telephonic interviews provides me with their views, perceptions and questions. This helps to brief speakers and to organize the various time slots.
A workshop of stakeholders in the conservation of a big mammal aims to formulate a communication strategy. Telephonic interviews with different participants about the issue, the role of communication, potential change agents, messages, current attitudes of major groups and perceived priorities provides insights of current knowledge, attitudes and skills and helps me plan the various timeslots.
The last questions always is: “what would make this workshop a success for you and what other good advice can you give me?”

Tiger conservation and empathy

A Royal Bengal tiger has been beaten to death by villagers at Chandipur village in Shyamnagar upazila this evening in the presence of law enforcers as it eat up five goats. This how the Dhaka newspaper the Daily Independent opened an article about a clash between conservation and local villagers. What I get from the conservationists involved is that there are different perceptions about the facts, due to the emotions involved. And I should not belief the press too easily. It reminds me of cases in Eastern Europe where villagers killed wolves that had attacked their sheep and goats. There too was a huge difference in perceptions. To the extent that in some cases guns were fired at protected area staffs. Our mediation was successful as we focused first on the conservationists to generate more empathy with the villagers. The value of 5 or 10 sheep is not just the money to replace them. What about the shock among the whole herd that impacts the behavior of the sheep for days or weeks, the milk production and the time the farmer has to spend on damage control, repairs and getting compensation from the authorities. The latter was indeed such a bureaucratic procedure that even when we convinced the protected area staff to help farmers filling in the forms, nobody in the office was able to do so easily. Change to resolve conflicts with large mamals starts - I learned - with generating our own empathy as conservationists with the villagers. I am curious how that is in this tiger case.