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

Abstract

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.

Supporting conservationists’ mental health through better working conditions

“…However, nature would be worse off without conservationists. Optimism movements that share examples of positive conservation outcomes, such as Conservation Optimism, Earth Optimism, and Ocean Optimism, may help illustrate this point (de Lange et al., 2022). Some individuals struggling with the bigger picture may find it helpful to engage with these movements and concentrate on their positive roles within collective conservation efforts.…”

“…The causes of this emotion are complex and multifaceted but stem partly from concerns about future outcomes for nature (Boon, 2022; Clayton, 2018; Pienkowski, Keane, et al., 2022). Optimism movements (e.g., Conservation Optimism) have emerged in part to help alleviate the emotional toll of environmental work (de Lange et al., 2022). In general, situational optimism is the expectation of positive outcomes within a specific context (Tusaie & Patterson, 2006).…”

Turning the Tide: An Analysis of Factors Influencing the Adoption of Biodiversity-Enhancing Measures on Agricultural Land at the German Baltic Coast

“…This shall enable and empower farmers to better understand their own relationships with the natural world and to identify their own ways of contributing to the transition to sustainability according to their individual strengths, capacities, and identities. Such messages require a clear objective, must be targeted to their specific audience, describe a desired outcome, and outline an appropriate measure of success [80].…”

Measuring the effectiveness of value-framing and message valence on audience engagement across countries

“…Messages about conser vation that emphasise loss can inhibit pro-environmental action (Jacobson et al, 2019), perhaps because recipients may deliberately avoid negative information that would oth erwise lead to psychological discomfort (Karlsson et al, 2009). In contrast, optimistic messages can be unifying and empowering-inspiring hope and collective action to achieve pro-environmental outcomes (de Lange et al, 2022;McAfee et al, 2019). Such an idea is fundamental to Common Cause (Blackmore et al, 2013), an organisation who ad vised that ENGOs should strive to promote collective activism and avoid disempowering messages that reduce recipients to merely passive sources of income.…”