Alan is a freelance conservationist, environmental educator and author-illustrator. He started his conservation career in 1992 and his current focus is on climate education through authorship of graphic novels and other resources. 

Although Alan joined our community only a few months ago (in August 2021), he has been an active member from the get-go and started sharing his creative resources that same month on the topics of Climate education with comics, Climate change in the Andes of Ecuador (where Alan is based), and discussed the rising sea levels with the famous Captain Polo. He furthermore contributed his lessons learned for a post on climate justice which was written in collaboration with Core Community member Ussi Abuu Mnamengi. 

Alan also took the opportunity to organise a WildHub Festival session last November, bringing together his colleagues at Authors & Educators on a Mission to discuss climate education and optimism during a “fireside” chat (link to the introductory clip here). They received feedback from a participant who said this session was the best 90 mins they had on zoom! 

Alan recently shared an opportunity to collaborate for our community, in which he introduced a novel idea to create an international climate-friendly cookbook for kids, so get in touch with Alan if you’re interested in teaming up! Within four months, Alan has made an important contribution to our community’s overall goal of exchanging information and sharing opportunities to collaborate with the aim to enable better and faster nature conservation. To celebrate, I took the opportunity to ask him some questions about his experience of becoming a Conservation Creator with WildHub.

Thirza: “What benefits have you found from being a WildHub member?”

Alan: “The possibility to network with like-minded individuals. WildHub is a platform quite unique in my experience in that it feels very present, the content is relevant to the here and now. There is also a pleasing gamification element where contributors are acknowledged and even celebrated for their contributions in a timely manner. WildHub also provided me with the flexibility of creating my own group event involving external participants who were not WildHub members, just at a time when this group was looking for a platform to host them in the context of COP26.”

“The other thing I like about WildHub is that the mechanics work: the platform functions smoothly, when I submit something I get the notification and confirmation I expect. In short, it’s professional.”

Thirza: “What helped you to contribute content on a regular basis and therefore helped you become a WildHub Core Community Member?”

Alan: “The efficient communication I get from WildHub and the revolving feel of new events and opportunities for making meaningful contributions are motivating. On WildHub I feel that my contributions will get seen and that they will bring value. I think organising periodic events like the Festival are very motivating because these provide a time-bound window to create or contribute in some way, and this builds a sense of community.”

Thirza: “Which barriers have you experienced to contributing content to WildHub on a regular basis?”

Alan: “The only barrier is on my side, in terms of not having enough to contribute!”  

Thirza: “What advice would you give to other members who would like to become a WildHub Core Community Member?”

Alan: “I think the key is in what you give, not only in terms of following others and commenting on posts etc, but also what you upload yourself. WildHub provides a very flexible and broad range of possibilities for what is accepted as quality content, so my advice is to not be shy and go for it!”

Have you benefited from the resources and events that Alan has shared and organised for us? Add how his contributions have benefitted you in the comment section and join me in congratulating Alan by adding your message below!