Importance of Communication in Wildlife Conservation

The information produced by conservationists and wildlife scientists has the potential to change the face of conservation, and so does effective communication. Having incredible data but no proper way of communication could damage the conservation action plans and, indeed, perish wildlife and natural habitats. Communicating conservation followed by action plans is essential to achieve conservation goals in this multifaceted world. Effective communication with the focus message and target audience leads to successful conservation.

Effective communication, focus message and target audience makes conservation a success story.

Communicating conservation in the following domains is a must for effective and successful conservation:

1. Communication among conservationists, managers and policymakers, and

2. Communicating conservation to common people

Communication among conservationists, managers and policymakers

People or agencies involved in or get affected by the process of conservation planning and decision-making are called stakeholders, they may or may not be included in the whole conservation process. Communication among stakeholders — conservationists, managers, policymakers, etc. should be a two-way process — information input and feedback. The information produced by research, for example — species biology (behaviour, activity pattern, physiology, genetics, etc.), habitat characteristics and species interaction in forests etc., could be very useful for wildlife managers in zoos and protected areas to save wildlife and for the policymakers to make the laws for wildlife protection. The conservation process is complex and involves multiple stakeholders with varied opinions and values. Maintaining a communication channel among the stakeholders is an intricate job in conservation.

Communication should be a two-way process.

For conservation to succeed, a continuous communication channel among different stakeholders is a must in the conservation process, from research to planning to implementation, and it should end with feedback. We would achieve fruitful conservation only if we developed a feedback communication process among stakeholders. The feedback mechanism could be at any stage and by any stakeholder, and this will harmoniously facilitate the planning and decision-making without any conflict. Finally, the researcher must share the success and failure stories for future reference. It's not only the success that should be shared and cheered but the failure. Communicating failure would make us learn what not to do.

The Project Tiger in India is a good example of effective stakeholder communication. The tiger population has declined drastically in the last century. The government of India in 1972 started Project Tiger to save the majestic cat species by creating Tiger Reserves across the country, protecting it with strict laws, and deploying Tiger Task Force to curb poaching in the protected areas. Since then, the population has increased massively. The credits go to stakeholders such as government officials, scientists and researchers, non-government organizations (NGOs), tourism sectors, and the local people in the respective areas. This effort has protected a single species and its whole habitat and provided livelihood to local people.

Communicating conservation to common people

Productive communication with people is essential for successful conservation because humans mainly cause biodiversity loss. Communicating science to the scientific community is one thing, but communicating science to common and local people with limited education and resources is another. The catch is simple: if common people understand and support the conservation, the conservation goals become attainable.

The story of the Greater Adjutant Stork, one woman and local people’s trust in her plan, would explain why communicating and educating local people about conservation is important. The greater adjutant stork is an endangered bird once distributed over Southeast Asian wetlands. Now, most of the population resides in Assam, India. Earlier, the species was considered a bad omen and a disease-carrying creature by the local people; hence, it received no good treatment. The local people, unaware of the bird's importance in the ecosystem, used to destroy the nesting trees of the bird and poison their source of food, hence pushing them to extinction unknowingly. The misconception among locals about the bird as a disease-carrying agent and lousy omen was the reason behind the act.

If every citizen in a country understands and supports conservation, as a result, conservation causes and initiatives become more attainable.

Dr Purnima, as a PhD student, identified this and tried to change the perception of local people about the bird. She taught them about the Greater adjutant stork and its importance in the ecosystem as a scavenger — they feed on the leftover food. She started a public relations plan to change the mindset of the local people about the bird. Her idea was to educate the local people about the bird and its role in the ecosystem and encourage people to take ownership of the species; for this, she mainly targeted women and started the one-woman campaign. This community-led conservation initiative impacted the population of the bird positively, for example, in one colony (Dadra and Pacharia village) in Assam there were 28 nests of the Greater adjutant stork, with the community conservation efforts by 2019 there were about 200 nests in the same colony. This is a great example of community conservation that proves how important it is to educate common people about the nature around them.

Role of Documentaries in Conservation Communication

A Documentary is a product of a creative and artistic mind showcasing a work in motion. Hearing and watching the stories of people and animals and conservation makes the public feel connected and more involved. Documentaries can create bridges of empathy and compassion for the world desperately in need. Visuals have the power to educate. Documentaries can reach a wider audience and potentially have a positive impact. It has frequently been used in conservation advocacy, reproducing content in multiple languages. When outdoor experience gets restricted, for example, during the current pandemic, documentaries will serve as a great platform to engage people in conservation education.

Barriers and Possible Solutions in Conservation Communication

We must communicate science in the simplest possible way. As scientists and researchers, we published a lot of information in standard journals based on observation and experimentation. However, most information is either inaccessible or complex, and many of us fail to understand it, let alone people with limited education and resources. Language, lack of accessibility and simple communication are the barriers to conservation communication. I know that conservation science has often become complex, but we need to learn to represent such complex science in the simplest way to common people. I believe the possible solution to these barriers would be “When you are doing conservation, think like a scientist, but when you teach or communicate conservation, think like a child”. One potential idea could be to create a platform where we all could easily access information on cutting-edge conservation research.

When you are doing conservation think like a scientist but when you teach or communicate conservation think like a child.

Project TraCon

TraCon stands for Translating Conservation - connecting people with meaningful information. As a wildlife biologist keen to become a conservation educator, I have always felt that conservation education lacks simplicity in communication.

Nature is simple yet complex to understand. The science behind conservation is often restricted to the scientific community, leaving behind the large crowd clueless. The science we publish is complex and usually inaccessible to common people. Millions of people in India and across the globe can only speak and read the regional languages, and a specific literate group can process simple English. Most journals have high access fees that limit students from accessing the information required. I started the project TraCon to reduce the barrier between common people and the conservation information scientists published. I believe that if every citizen in a country understands and supports conservation. As a result, conservation causes and initiatives become more attainable.

Project TraCon focuses on two objectives: i) evaluate the impact of information inaccessibility on conservation in India and ii) educate everyday Indian citizens about the conservation science via ease of access to information through blogs and E-magazine — writing short, efficient and informative articles and creating an application where every Indian can have access to conservation science in their regional languages. The project will facilitate our understanding of conservation outreach and the impact of inaccessibility in conservation, such as language barriers and paid subscriptions to journals. The project will provide solutions to inaccessibility issues by allowing easy access to cutting-edge research on conservation through blogs, e-magazines, and mobile applications (articles in different regional languages). These resources will be free to everyone with a download facility.

(This particular blog is part of my TraCon initiative. Initially, I will write in simple English, and next, I plan to convert my articles into multiple Indian regional languages. If you feel you can be of any help to the project, please get in touch with me.)

let’s talk about conservation, let’s have a standpoint, let conservation be the part of our normal conversation.