PR, the future of wildlife conservation?
Wildlife is declining at unprecedented rates: conservation groups must convince policy makers to act before it’s too late. But how best to cut through?
Since 1970, the world has lost sixty nine percent of its wildlife populations. One study predicts that we’re on course to lose an additional forty percent of vertebrate species by the end of the century. According to the UN Environment Programme, one million of the world’s eight million plants and animals are threatened with extinction.
Despite this, wildlife conservation doesn’t feature heavily on government policy schedules – with continued priority given to economics, industry, technology, public health and international relations.
There’s also a worrying trend in certain parts of the world towards short-term thinking on environmental matters. For instance, the Trump administration’s threats to remove endangered species legislation, in order, critics say, that American companies can more easily and cheaply establish new oil, gas and development projects.
Emma Ackerley, media relations manager for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) believes that to influence governments to affect the necessary changes, PR professionals working in and for wildlife conservation groups must present the nature emergency as a crisis for the entire planet and everyone who lives on it.
“Nature is an everyday part of our society, it underpins our food and water security, cost of living, our energy and finance systems,” she says. Ackerley who holds a CIPR crisis communications certificate, adds: “Look around – your wooden table, plastics made from petroleum fossils, food in the cupboard. All of this relies on nature.”
Influencing the influencers
Last October, before COP 16, the UN biodiversity conference in Colombia, WWF ran a PR campaign to encourage governments to act with more urgency towards agreed biodiversity targets from the 2022 COP summit in Montreal. By 2030, at least 30% of the Earth’s land and ocean should be effectively conserved and managed, $200bn spent per year on conservation and subsidies that damage biodiversity – for instance over-fishing – eliminated. However, at the time of the Colombia summit, most countries hadn’t started to implement these policies.
“To achieve our aim, we told stories that would resonate with policy makers as human beings, as well as government representatives,” Ackerley says. She believes that the most effective stories establish an emotional connection with the target audience. “Find the common interest, the human-interest story, have the people who themselves rely on nature and co-exist with wildlife tell the story. Show how these people overcome threats, how their livelihood is changing (as a result of the nature emergency.)”
To this end, WWF arranged a press trip to rural Colombia during COP 16, where journalists met such locals. WWF also published a Living Planet report that provided details on the nature emergency, and released a video of a fictional policy maker sweating over telling the world that his government was not going to meet its biodiversity targets this year. During the summit itself, the WWF PR team briefed journalists from media restricted areas within the venue. “We used our access to pass on important insights that helped journalists pitch stories to their editors,” says Ackerley.
Targeted PR
Sometimes, a conservation PR campaign needs to be targeted at one policy maker, or a small group. Last year, PR agency Hanbury Strategy worked with the Zoological Society of London to get a private members bill through parliament to renew ZSL’s Regent’s Park lease for 150 years, instead of ZSL’s usual 60-year renewal. ZSL runs wildlife conservation projects all over the world and relies on London Zoo and Whipsnade Zoo for a large proportion of its income.
“With a policy maker, you have about 20 minutes to present a clear narrative that persuades them that your project will help meet government priorities – in ZSL’s case, this was philanthropic funding,” says Lilli Cariou, Hanbury Strategy’s client manager for ZSL. “To do this, you need to get to know the policy maker beforehand, find out what they’ve done in parliament, how they react to things, who is likely to support your project and who might oppose it.”
Cariou continues: “We advised that without the longer lease, ZSL would find it more difficult to find the long-term funding it needs for its conservation projects. Also, that the parliamentary bill had to happen before the 2024 election, as the predicted incoming government would be unlikely to support it.”
Ackerley adds: “You work out who can affect change and target them with a simple clear message that resonates with their priorities. Farmers listen to farmers, everyday people listen to influencers and celebrities, MPs to constituencies, businesses and watch what other countries are doing.”
Community outreach
Not all decision makers are politicians, though. Community leaders also hold a lot of clout locally, and according to Ian McNab, PR and communications manager for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, local influencers can help spread the word to people outside a conservation organisation’s traditional audience.
“Through our Nextdoor Nature Pioneers programme we trained community leaders in four targeted regions to set up their own action or nature projects,” says McNab.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust manages natural spaces in and around Scotland’s cities and towns, as well as in rural areas. The rest of the UK has its own network of regional wildlife trusts. One priority for all these groups is to encourage people to use and support natural spaces on their own doorsteps.
“It’s our job to turn people’s increasing awareness of the nature crisis into actions that will support nature,” adds McNab. “This doesn’t have to be anything massive; it can be as simple as putting a bird feeder in the garden, signing a petition or visiting a nature reserve. Every little helps.”
COP 16 negotiations broke down in Colombia, last October. However, at this February’s COP 16 meeting in Rome, 140 countries agreed they would raise the $200bn to help developing countries conserve biodiversity.
“Speak (to decision makers) in a language they can understand,” says Ackerley. “Show them that it’s a business risk to continue to ignore what is happening in the natural world and that nature positive investments can also make energy, food and agriculture, energy systems more efficient.”
Find out more about the CIPR’s Lobbying for Good Lobbying Campaign that promotes the importance of good lobbying and calls for legislative reform to build greater transparency and openness in Westminster's democratic processes.
Cris Andrews is a freelance writer and journalist. He loves wildlife, cats and Sherlock Holmes. But has never watched an episode of reality TV.