NEW RESEARCH! Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play a key role in biodiversity conservation. The majority of these organisations rely on public donations to fund their activities, and therefore fundraising success is a determinant of conservation outcomes. In spite of this integral relationship, the key principals for fundraising success in conservation are still guided by expert opinion … [Read more…]
Fresh of press is a new article in the journal Animal Conservation (FULL TEXT HERE). In it we describe an intervention to reduce demand for bushmeat in northern Tanzania. The intervention was centered around the 1-h radio show My Wildlife – My Community which included 15-min episodes of the radio drama Temboni, designed by PCI … [Read more…]
Measuring change is hard. But it is also critical to programs hoping to influence human behaviour towards more positive societal outcomes. In a newly published paper, Does It Work for Biodiversity? Experiences and Challenges in the Evaluation of Social Marketing Campaigns, we tackle the challenge of evaluating social marketing campaigns targeting fishing communities in the … [Read more…]
For years there have been reports in the popular press of the impact of the Harry Potter phenomenon in the UK on the demand for owls as pets. This narrative became so popular that it led even JK Rowling to issue several statements on this issue asking fans to not keep owls as pets. But … [Read more…]
The Earth is home to millions of species, but you wouldn’t know it from the media’s obsession with only a few dozen animals like tigers and gorillas. This narrow focus makes the most of popular fascination with large and cute creatures. Conservationists take advantage of these nonhuman celebrities to raise awareness about important issues and … [Read more…]
Just out in Biological Conservation! Check it out here Conservationists often complain that their study species are ignored by donors. However, marketing theory could help understand and increase the profile and fundraising potential of these neglected species. We used linear regression with multimodel inference to analyse data on online behaviour from the websites of the … [Read more…]
Back in 2014, I co-led a storytelling project that aimed to take the best stories of field biologists to a broader audience. After all, it’s those episodes that make work so unique and rewarding. The result was the book BIOgrafias: Vidas de Quem Estuda a Vida, which brings together 18 biologists and more than 35 stories. … [Read more…]
Recently Emma Mckinley and I wrote a correspondence piece for the journal Oryx, celebrating the formation of the SCB Conservation Marketing Working Group and highlighting the potential of this new field to contribute to biodiversity conservation. We were no doubt excited when we were told that we had received a reply, where the case against … [Read more…]
A great collaborative project involving more than a dozen conservation social scientists from more than dozen social science fields! Find the Open Acess Paper here! And the abstract below! Despite broad recognition of the value of social sciences and increasingly vocal calls for better engagement with the human element of conservation, the conservation social sciences … [Read more…]
Just out in PLOS One, a paper (get it HERE!) I co-authored with colleagues at the University of Kent on the preferences of wild meat consumers in Vietnam. The country is a significant consumer of wildlife, particularly wild meat, in urban restaurant settings. To meet this demand, poaching of wildlife is widespread, threatening regional and … [Read more…]