A strategic communication approach to biodiversity conservation

We are currently experiencing a biodiversity extinction crisis of our own making. As human activities are the primary driver of biodiversity loss, human action will play a key role in moving towards a better future for both nature and people. Whether as key decision-makers or members of the public, all individuals have the power to create positive change for biodiversity. Individuals can impact biodiversity through pro-biodiversity behaviours, including consumer choices and advocacy. By engaging in certain attitudes or behaviours, individuals can influence their peers and shape perceptions of social acceptability. In turn, this can influence how issues are discussed in the media and political discourse, and the extent to which industries have social license to operate. Conservation messaging shows promise as a powerful tool to promote individual behaviour change and community engagement with nature conservation. Because of this, conservation messaging is increasingly used to encourage pro-biodiversity attitudes and behaviours. Yet research into appropriate conservation messaging strategies is lacking and delivering effective communication is complex and challenging, often requiring resources and expertise not available to many conservation professionals. In this thesis, I apply a strategic communication approach to conservation messaging to explore how to best plan and design communications to increase public and stakeholder engagement with biodiversity. While there are four major stages of the strategic communication process, formative research, strategy, tactics, and evaluative research, I focus principally on the strategy and tactics stages in this thesis. I draw from other social science disciplines, particularly those that draw from behavioural science, to inform the strategic communication approach used, including conservation social marketing, conservation psychology, and the study of social change. As strategic communication and behavioural science approaches become more commonplace, it is critical that conservation professionals reflect on ethical considerations of these relatively unfamiliar approaches. To inform this, I explore ethical considerations for conservation messaging research and practice, drawing from social marketing, public relations, and social change literature. My research provides a guide for reflection by conservation professionals engaging in messaging approaches, presenting considerations that are important when defining the problem, designing the solution, and considering outcomes. The strategy stage is a critical part of the strategic communications process that has received little research attention. Understanding the barriers that prevent engagement with biodiversity conservation can be key to setting strategic objectives and selecting the appropriate target audience for interventions. Drawing from a range of social science disciplines, I identify and summarise five key barriers to individual engagement: misaligned knowledge and experiences, misaligned values and expectations, low personal and social relevance, low self-efficacy, and limiting context. I then provide suggestions for interventions that may overcome these barriers. As well as providing a practical resource for professionals, this chapter uses a novel application of a theoretical framework from strategic communication (the Situational Theory of Publics) to explore and define barriers in a way that directly relates to defined audience types. This alternate way of conceptualising individual engagement is particularly relevant to conservation messaging interventions due to its connection to information seeking and processing. Next, I explore barriers to stakeholder engagement by applying a social science survey to a practical case study assessing stakeholder perceptions of kangaroo management in the arid rangelands of Australia. Results establish that stakeholder perceptions do not present a substantial barrier to effective management. Instead, other challenges, such as public perceptions and stakeholder trust in other organisations are the primary barriers. This chapter provides a key theoretical contribution by applying a social science model (the behavioural ecological model) to kangaroo management, as well as practical impact through informing real world conservation action planning processes. In the second half of my thesis, I consider research questions relevant to the tactics stage of the strategic communications process, with a specific focus on message design. Two chapters explore the potential for common names to influence perceptions and willingness to conserve species, first using an innovative quantitative content analysis method and then an online experimental survey. The content analysis reveals highly emotive negative (and positive) words in the English common names of IUCN Red List threatened species, suggesting that there is potential for strategic name changes to alter public perceptions. I explore this potential further in an online experimental survey, which reveals observable differences in perceived conservation importance due to certain words (e.g., common). However, these changes are not statistically significant and require further investigation. Therefore, other communication elements (such as the inclusion of threat status) appear to have a stronger influence on perceptions. Taken together, the content analysis and experimental survey demonstrate the complexity of communication design, and the importance of perceptions of specific elements, such as threat status, within the presented text. In recent years the global COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of clear science communication and strategic public health messaging. It has also presented potentially problematic framings, in which wildlife is discussed in the context of public health and disease, risking negative associations and emotions (e.g., fear, disgust) towards nature or specific species (e.g., bats). Conservation professionals and organisations may wish to remedy this association or take advantage of publicity opportunities to promote their own conservation message. But potential pitfalls abound. By exploring the role of message framing and narratives in communications around COVID-19 and nature, my research demonstrates how taking a strategic communication approach may limit communication pitfalls. I discuss how to avoid creating or reenforcing problematic message frames or narratives, such as those that promote ‘man vs. wild’ or ‘nature as dangerous’. Further empirical research into conservation message frames and narratives will illuminate to what extent such frames may impact public perceptions and engagement in biodiversity conservation. This thesis presents a case for taking a strategic approach to planning and designing communication to ensure effective and ethical conservation messaging for biodiversity conservation. More effective conservation messages will motivate public and stakeholder engagement with biodiversity conservation and increase uptake of pro-biodiversity behaviours. Taking a strategic communication approach to biodiversity conservation will play a key role in supporting the hopeful vision of a sustainable future for both people and nature.