Ethical considerations for conservation messaging research and practice

Gregg, Emily A.; Kidd, Lisa; Bekessy, Sarah A.; Martin, Jen; Robinson, Jennifer A.; Garrard, Georgia E.

doi:10.1002/pan3.10373

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 128 publications

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“…Behavior change campaigns are one important tool for conservation, and will continue to be critiqued and refined as the field grows (Gregg et al, 2022; Kidd et al, 2019; Reddy et al, 2017). Here, we suggest relational organizing can address some of the limitations of individual behavior change campaigns by facilitating more rapid, widespread, and collective efforts by everyday people.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivating relational organizing behavior for biodiversity conservation

Jones

Niemiec

2023

Conservat Sci and Prac

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As biodiversity loss and climate change accelerate, more people worldwide are engaging in conservation behaviors to “do their part.” Yet, individual behavior change alone is insufficient for the large‐scale, rapid change needed to address these crises. Relational organizing, which involves individuals reaching out to others in their social network, can enhance the speed and scale of conservation behavior change and address the complex, collective action nature of many conservation problems. However, many people practicing conservation behaviors in their own lives do not engage in relational organizing about conservation issues. Here, we suggest this may be the result of specific social‐psychological factors inhibiting people from reaching out to others. We summarize the evidence and offer a research and practice agenda to prioritize (1) understanding the social‐psychological barriers that prevent relational organizing, and (2) addressing these barriers through targeted outreach interventions to help scale and accelerate community action for conservation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivating relational organizing behavior for biodiversity conservation

Jones

Niemiec

2023

Conservat Sci and Prac

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“…To help conservation communicators begin to construct messages that trigger positive emotions, we suggest that four elements of a communication strategy could benefit from being in place: a clear objective, a specific audience, a desired outcome, and an appropriate measure of success. Conservation communicators should reflect on these elements alongside ethical considerations in messaging, including, for example, fairness in targeting specific audiences (Gregg et al, 2022). With these elements in place, we offer five tips for designing messages that can help build the positive reinforcement and emotions needed for long-term engagement and transformative change.…”

Section: Implications For Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicating the Biodiversity Crisis: From “Warnings” to Positive Engagement

Lange

Sharkey

Tickell

et al. 2022

Tropical Conservation Science

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Background: Effective communication can play a vital role in societal transformations towards sustainability and biodiversity restoration. However, the complexity and long-term nature of environmental change presents a communication challenge. If not carefully navigated, messages around environmental degradation can lead to audience disengagement and issue fatigue, at a time when motivation, engagement and positive action is required. Methods: In this Conservation in Action piece, we describe the principles of positive communication, which are being adopted by a growing movement of conservation organizations. We support this approach by reviewing evidence on the role of emotions in decision-making from diverse fields such as psychology and communications, paying particularly close attention to the experiences of climate change communicators. Results: Positive emotional experiences, including feelings of hope, collective efficacy, and the warm glow that follows actions aligned with intrinsic values, can play an essential role in sustaining actions that contribute to transformative change. While negative emotions prime specific action tendencies, positive emotions enable creativity, cooperation, and resilience, which are all essential for overcoming the challenging nature of acting on the biodiversity crisis. Conclusions: Communications from conservation researchers and practitioners need to reflect the reality of the biodiversity crisis. While some communications may seek to motivate action through warnings and threats, messages that trigger positive emotions in audiences can help inspire long-term engagement and action. We suggest that this positive communication approach is underutilized. Implications: We present a guide to help those working in conservation convey their messages in ways that are empowering and positive. As the biodiversity crisis intensifies, it is critical that conservation professionals continue to imagine and develop pathways to a better future and communicate with others in society in a way that supports transformative change towards this future.

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“…Recent work in conservation has drawn attention to how frames are reflected in scientific language (Elliott, 2020;Tadaki et al, 2023) and conservation messaging (Gregg et al, 2022). However, most frame research has focused on the consequences of frames and not the scholarly processes that bring them into being in the first place (McNamee, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Identifying, reflecting on and even destabilizing entrenched frames can be helpful for understanding when and where our diagnosis or understanding of a problem fails, particularly when the facts and values behind our assumptions come into view (Evans, 2021). Recent work in conservation has drawn attention to how frames are reflected in scientific language (Elliott, 2020; Tadaki et al., 2023) and conservation messaging (Gregg et al., 2022). However, most frame research has focused on the consequences of frames and not the scholarly processes that bring them into being in the first place (McNamee, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Are certain facts treated as more valuable than others? In what follows, we respect calls for reflexivity in conservation science (Archer et al, 2022;Beck et al, 2021;Boyce et al, 2022;Gregg et al, 2022;Montana et al, 2020), and so revisit our own assumptions in reference to the first author's initial work in the region (beginning in 2014), as this too is a case in point on the problem of frames and the myopia they may promote.…”

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confidence: 97%

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Seeing beyond the frames we inherit: A challenge to tenacious conservation narratives

Chignell,

Satterfield

2023

People and Nature

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Natural and social scientists everywhere are struggling to understand how to proceed in the face of continued biodiversity loss and the injustices brought upon people living in and around conservation landscapes. This has resulted in increasing calls for critical reflection on the narratives driving conservation research and practice. Narratives can be understood as part of a larger process of “framing” within an intellectual community, which includes the way studies are defined and discussed. Identifying, reflecting on and even destabilizing entrenched frames can be helpful for understanding when and where our diagnosis or understanding of a problem fails. However, we also need to understand the scholarly processes that create and reify some frames (and not others) over time. We address these needs by developing a mixed‐method approach that integrates qualitative frame analysis and quantitative science mapping to identify the origins of the dominant frame and trace its reproduction in the scientific literature over time. We demonstrate this approach using the case of the Bale Mountains, an internationally recognised centre of species endemism in Ethiopia. Our results show the enduring influence of the perceptions and values of a few early conservation scientists working with limited data. This led to erroneous assumptions and conclusions that, in some cases, were corrected by later research, but in many cases were not. This was a function of the social and intellectual structure of the scientific network, minor but consequential decisions in data interpretation and specific citational habits. Synthesizing these results, we identify several linked mechanisms that helped the dominant frame retain its tenacity and may also be at work in other contexts. We close with a discussion on how others might apply our approach and how future scientific research and conservation practice could proceed differently. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Ethical considerations for conservation messaging research and practice

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 11 publications

References 128 publications

Motivating relational organizing behavior for biodiversity conservation

Motivating relational organizing behavior for biodiversity conservation

Communicating the Biodiversity Crisis: From “Warnings” to Positive Engagement

Seeing beyond the frames we inherit: A challenge to tenacious conservation narratives

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