Valuing Nature Campaigns

1. Valuing Nature Campaigns

2. Communicating the benefits of Mexico’s protected areas • Studied the goods and services provided by the country’s protected areas including: tourism, carbon sequestration, water provision services, watershed protection, disaster mitigation and fisheries Results: • PA’s receive 14 million national and international visits per year • PA’s store an equivalent of 5.6 years of Mexico’s CO2 emissions (at the 2004 rate)

3. Protected areas contribution to Peru’s economy • Better position protected areas on the political agenda and integrate them into national development plans • Review possible new financial resources • Look specifically at contribution of protected areas to sustainable tourism • Review options regarding payment for environmental services schemes • Develop alliances with the private sector • Run joint projects with local and regional governments

4. Findings: • For every $ invested in tourism in PA’s the return was US$46 • Around 2.7 million people use water originating from 16 PA’s (value of approx. US$81 million) • 60% of the hydro-electricity comes from rivers in PA’s • In total: current and potential benefits of PA’s contribute over US$1 billion per year to the national economy

6. What can we learn from these experience? • TNC Valuing Nature Campaigns aims to identify, assess and disseminate information about the environmental, social and economic benefits provided by protected areas in order to: • generate political will • create public awareness • mobilise and increase funding for protected areas

7. Planning and Implementing the campaign • - Carry out a situation analysis • - Develop objectives • Identify your audience • Identify and prioritize values • - Define the scope of the study • - Select methods - Develop an implementation plan - Agree indicators to assess the project’s success - Carry out a literature review, data collection and analysis - Write the research report Develop a coordination team and build coalitions Design the communication strategy Implement the communication strategy

8. Develop a coordination team and build coalitions • Teams and coalitions: National government; environment and development groups; researchers; communication specialists; local stakeholders etc • Initial aims: Coordinate the coalition’s work; identify target audience (s) and overall political objectives of the campaign; agree stakeholder engagement at strategic points in the process

9. Situational analysis:Assessing the context • Urgency and need for action now? • Consequences of not acting • Impacts of the campaign: on PA objectives/on local communities • Are there other alternative actions that could achieve these objectives? • Availability of technical capacity • Assessing the political environment – who and how to influence

10. Develop objectives Specific objectives/outcomes • Showcase the contribution of protected areas to the national and local economy and to the country’s development process • Support the creation and consolidation of a PES related to water services to be directed to the conservation of protected areas • Create an environmental fee targeted at cruise ships - for conservation of mangroves and coral reefs • Creation of X number of MPAs

11. Identify your audience • Highlight values that are relevant to the specific audience in order to be effective • Who will be using the information in the decision-making process • Individuals or groups who have the ability to influence the policy or public funding outcomes you aim to achieve

12. Prioritise values • What values (benefits and services) have a major potential for being successfully communicated to target audiences? • Is data available on the values selected? Have studies been carried out? • Economic arguments alone are not always sufficient - cultural and social arguments are very important for most societies

13. Agree the methodology • Decide how you communicate the benefits of the values the protected areas conserve • Mexico: Studied the goods and services provided by the country’s protected areas including tourism, carbon sequestration, water provision services, watershed protection, disaster mitigation and fisheries • Peru: Human water consumption = National market prices; Hydro energy production = National market prices of energy transmission; Irrigation = National market prices of agricultural products, etc

14. Scope of Work Identification of: • Financial resources available • Time lines • Geographical areas • Type and intensity of consultation processes and participation

15. Implementation plan • List of main values, methodology and indicators • Agree indicators of success (output and outcome measures) • Literature review: Report on available data and information • Comprehensive report on protected areas values, benefits and services including scenario analysis and alternatives • Executive summary • Communication materials designed and launched

16. Communication strategy • Set clear goals for communications that relate directly to the campaign objectives • Identify target audiences for communications during the planning stages of the project • Develop key messages based on the findings that present a compelling argument for target audience • Identify the most effective communications channels to reach target audiences and deliver key messages (media, launch events, workshops, print materials or paid advertisements) • Identify key spokespersons based on relevance to target audience • Have a communications strategy budget

17. Lesson’s learned from the implementation of pilots in TNC • Clear objectives, timing, budgets • Hire the right consultants • Involve communications from the beginning • Simple but good implementation plan to guide you • Peer-reviewed secondary information and studies • Do not get overwhelmed with data • Include cultural values • Short reports that people can understand • An academic study will not fulfill the purpose