Who isn't engaging in conservation

I'm conducting a review to find out which audiences are currently under represented in their engagement with nature and conservation. If you have information from your organisation or can share links to relevant studies/research please pass them on - contact details below.
Who isn't engaging in conservation
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I work for Chester Zoo as Community Engagement Manager. Part of my role is planning community initiatives linked to our Wildlife Connections campaign which is all about creating safe space for UK wildlife by working with local communities. We would like to do more to make sure that our activities are inclusive and realise that this will mean proactively engaging under represented audiences, addressing barriers to engagement etc. My starting point is to collate any information that I can find about who currently isn't engaging in conservation. There are various Natural England reports which I'm working my way through but if anyone has information from their own organisation or relevant links to share that would be much appreciated. Additionally if you have developed a programme to specifically target an under represented group I'd love to talk more about what you did and how you went about it. 

The initial focus for this work is UK but if the international audience would also like to share their experience I would be very interested as another area of my work is to support Chester Zoo's international field partners with their conservation education initiatives. 

Thanks for your support - h.brooks@chesterzoo.org

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Go to the profile of Adam Barlow
over 3 years ago

Hi Hannah - just read a very interesting article by another hub member. Think she would be good to chat to on this topic..https://wildhub.community/users/65112-merlyn-nomusa-nkomo

Go to the profile of Hannah Brooks
over 3 years ago

Thanks for sharing, I'll get in touch!

Go to the profile of Diana Pound
over 3 years ago

Hi Hannah, we co-produced new knowledge with young people living with deprivation, about access to the benefits of being in nature at the coast commissioned by NE -  that might be one of the reports you are looking at but if not I can send it to you.  The young people were very clear on barriers and potential solutions - many of which apply regardless of coast or not.  Some of what they shared was profoundly moving.  To create the new knowledge with them we first used new mixed social science and participation method, went to a deprived area and then selected ways of meeting with young people who were living with additional levels of deprivation or barriers.  In the second round of engagement we used our own Creative Horizon event - an approach in which participants take charge of the agenda - what they want to talk about and how to express that.   We have found more generally in our Stakeholder Dialogue work that there are certain groups that are hard to reach: people caring (for kids, elderly or other needs),  different abilities, ethnic groups, any age living with deprivation, education barriers eg working with some fishers who were not fluent in reading and writing so felt scared to be involved with 'educated types'.  Anyway if you want to chat about this then email me diana.pound@dialoguematters.co.uk   

Go to the profile of Lizzie Bannister
over 3 years ago

Hello CPRE are promoting accessibilty fpr black people and the countryside - see: https://www.cpre.org.uk/opinions/black-lives-matter-in-the-countryside/. There is one black guy who ran walks to get black people into the countryside (now called Walk4Health and includes females): https://www.cpre.org.uk/stories/maxwell-ayamba-my-england/, and the Wildlife Trust is also trying to promote diversity too - I remember reading about them running tours for black and other ethnic minorities in London and indiviuals of different race givingtheir experiences of being a Wildlife Trust member/volunteer. Lizzie.