Our lands are now quieter than they ever have been. It’s eery, we see less of our favourite animals, we mark the notable absence of the hum of pollinators, the fewer calls from birds along our coast.
It’s simple. Our nature is declining. In the past 50 years UK species have declined on average by 19%. Now, one in every six species is at risk of becoming extinct. The main reasons are climate change and the way we treat the land and sea for farming and fishing.
With the Secretary for Energy Security and Net Zero recently delivering his first annual statement on the State of Climate and Nature, communicating the actions being taken in response to climate change and biodiversity loss is now more important than ever.
Now, most of us don’t have the capabilities to enact the recommended responses to this crisis:
The widespread political action and policies required are outside the scope of possibility for most people. But there’s one thing we all have in common, the stories we tell and the language we use to communicate them.
The power of the media to shape public sentiment is undeniable. This blog post includes four practical tips to share conservation stories that make a lasting impression on your readers. Protecting nature is far from simple, but telling the right stories in the right way can make a notable difference.
Another way to say this is ‘clickbait’. Everyone in this space is competing for the same limited attention and conservation is an urgent crisis to address. With so many voices and so much noise, how do we cut through it?
It’d be easy to fall into sensationalist rhetoric to get your point across. This can look like:
Sensationalism grabs attention, sure, but it can easily slip into ‘doom and gloom’. How can we avoid ‘doom and gloom’ fatigue?
We’ve all seen it; we’ve all heard it. It can be difficult not to slip into a pessimistic view when bombarded with data most cannot control. By focussing on the possible and leading with actionable takeaways to make a difference, readers are more likely to stay engaged and continue consuming similar content. But, by emphasising the negative and portraying the environment, nature and wildlife as helpless victims with no return, you risk fatiguing readers. And, portraying something as ‘beyond return’ to get attention is undermining. Audiences will grow tired of a message, and may end up seeing the suggested actions as pointless; because why would you help something portrayed as beyond help?
Highlight positive change to inspire more positive change.
Nothing in this sector is as simple and as straightforward as we may wish. Protecting the environment is no longer as black-and-white as picking up litter and saving the world. By acknowledging and communicating the complexities in the sector honestly, for example:
you’re more likely to instil trust and respect in your audience. By avoiding the complexity, you’re ignoring your audience’s ability to understand and engage with nuance.
The bigger picture is as important as the key messages you push. Helping your audience understand the ecological, social and historical background allows for further understanding of the story: the motivation and purpose, which helps to solidify your call-to-action at the end (whatever it may be).
So, while we give our audience the trust of being able to understand nuance, providing context and transparency allows for wider accessibility and decreases the likelihood of your audience just clicking off if they don’t understand.
Conservation is collaborative, it takes the actions of many volunteers, policymakers, campaigners, educational institutions, businesses and more to make a difference. Positioning one company, organisation or individual as the ‘saviour’ is unproductive, and simply untrue. Rather, show the context (as mentioned above), the collaboration and the collective efforts put in to get the outcome you’re looking to communicate, can inspire others to do the same. When reading of just one overarching ‘hero’, there’s little for your audience to relate with.
Communicating conservation stories is a delicate balance, knowing when to shout from the rooftops and when to share with subtlety, all to inspire greater care for nature. Getting it right means navigating the news agenda, understanding the policy landscape and refining your message with clarity and purpose. Sometimes, bringing in the right expertise can make all the difference.
