Framing the conservation conversation: an investigation into framing techniques for communicating biodiversity conservation

Biodiversity loss is one of the most serious of contemporary environmental problems. As human activities are the primary driver of biodiversity loss, changes to human behaviour will be an essential component of species conservation strategies. Research in communication, sociology, psychology, and political science has shown that the way in which an issue is ‘framed’ can influence judgements, attitudes and behaviours. As such, communications intended to promote behaviour change in favour of biodiversity conservation may be made more effective by the strategic use of framing. Although a sizable framing literature exists across many research areas, there is little research on the use of framing to promote biodiversity conservation, and practically no guidance for those involved in communicating conservation messages. This thesis builds an understanding of the use of framing to promote biodiversity conservation by: empirically testing several alternatively framed conservation communications; investigating the degree to which framing is strategically used in the Australian private land conservation sector to promote conservation programs; considering how the framing of biodiversity has changed over the last decade within public policy discourse; and providing guidance to communicators on how to strategically frame their messages for greater effect. This thesis begins by empirically testing several alternatively framed conservation messages. I test how framing ‘property’ as either a ‘discrete asset’ or as a ‘bundle-of-rights’ can influence attitudes to regulations that would interfere with property rights in order to achieve conservation outcomes. I find that the alternative property ‘frames’ can influence attitudes, but only when used to activate cognitive biases (in this case the endowment effect). I also test how framing nature in terms of ‘ecosystem services’ influences the way in which people think about and value nature, and find that information framed to emphasise economic aspects of ecosystem services can crowd-out (i.e. displace) intrinsic motivations for conservation. Such ‘ecosystem service’ framed messages thereby have the potential to promote a mindset that the only nature worth preserving is that with a demonstrable and quantifiable value. The thesis then examines the degree to which framing is strategically used in the Australian private land conservation sector to promote participation. By examining the websites of a range of Australian schemes and categorising stated participation benefits as either benefits to landholders, to society or to the environment, I gain insight into the types of landholders mostly likely to be engaged by these messages. The results indicate a predominance of environmentally-framed benefits, which arguably indicates a lack of strategic framing, whereby appeals are aimed chiefly at those landholders who are already most likely to participate in conservation. The thesis then considers how the framing of biodiversity has changed over the last decade within public policy discourse by examining media releases from the Australian Government environment portfolio and the Australian Conservation Foundation. I find that the term ‘biodiversity’ has become less prevalent while the use of economic language has increased. This may reflect a strategic response by these agencies to better engage with both the general public and decision makers within what is an increasingly dominant neoliberal paradigm. However, this change in discourse is likely also to generate its own influence on the way people think about biodiversity conservation, including the potential for ‘crowding-out’ of intrinsic values. Finally, the thesis presents a synthesis of these research findings including key concepts from the framing and related literature to provide some guidance to conservation communicators on how to strategically frame their messages for greater impact and effect

Framing the private land conservation conversation: Strategic framing of the benefits of conservation participation could increase landholder engagement

How conservation messages are framed will likely impact on the success of our efforts to engage people in conservation action. This is highly relevant in the private land conservation (PLC) sector given the low participation rates of landholders. Using a case study of PLC schemes targeted at Australian landholders, we present the first systematic analysis of communication strategies used by organisations and government departments delivering those schemes to engage the public. We develop a novel approach for analysing the framing of conservation messages that codes the stated benefits of schemes according to value orientation. We categorised the benefits as flowing to either the landholder, to society, or to the environment, corresponding to the egoistic, altruistic and biospheric value orientations that have been shown to influence human behaviour. We find that messages are biased towards environmental benefits. Surprisingly, this is the case even for market-based schemes that have the explicit objective of appealing to production-focussed landholders and those who are not already involved in conservation. The risk is that PLC schemes framed in this way will fail to engage more egoistically oriented landholders and are only likely to appeal to those most likely to already be conservation-minded. By understanding the frame in which PLC benefits are communicated, we can begin to understand the types of people who may be engaged by these messages, and who may not be. Results suggest that the framing of the communications for many schemes could be broadened to appeal to a more diverse group (and thus ultimately to a larger group) of landholders

Consequences of information suppression in ecological and conservation sciences

Suppressing expert knowledge can hide environmentally damaging practices and policies from public scrutiny. We surveyed ecologists and conservation scientists from universities, government, and industry across Australia to understand the prevalence and consequences of suppressing science communication. Government (34%) and industry (30%) respondents reported higher rates of undue interference by employers than did university respondents (5%). Internal communications (29%) and media (28%) were curtailed most, followed by journal articles (11%), and presentations (12%). When university and industry researchers avoided public commentary, this was mainly for fear of media misrepresentation, while government employees were most often constrained by senior management and workplace policy. One third of respondents reported personal suffering related to suppression, including job losses and deteriorating mental health. Substantial reforms are needed, including to codes of practice, and governance of environmental assessments and research, so that scientific advice can be reported openly, in a timely manner and free from interference

Decline of 'biodiversity' in conservation policy discourse in Australia

Market-based instruments along with conceptualizing the environment as a collection of 'ecosystem services' has become increasingly common within environmental and conservation policy. This kind of thinking is also increasingly prominent in the public discourse surrounding environment and conservation policy, particularly in the context of communicating the importance of policy measures. Language used in public discourse can have a powerful influence on how people engage with policy issues, and changes within the biodiversity and conservation discourse may have consequences for public engagement in conservation. We explored how these factors are changing with time by documenting the use of the terms 'bio' and the prevalence of economic language in the text of 3553 media releases between 2003 and 2014 from the Australian Government environment portfolio, and 1064 media releases from the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF). Results show that in the last decade, the term 'biodiversity' has become less prevalent whilst economic language has increased in both Australian Government and ACF communication. A further content analysis in a subsample of 745 media releases explored the prevalence of ecosystem services framing, results indicating that it has become a mainstream concept. While this may reflect a strategic response by these agencies to better engage with both the general public and decision makers within what is an increasingly dominant neoliberal paradigm, we argue it may also have unintended (possibly adverse) impacts on how people think about and engage with biodiversity conservation

Understanding and planning for the environmental benefits of community engagement programs

While some environmental benefits of environmental engagement programs have been well studied (e.g. reduction in consumption of energy, water, etc.), the specific biodiversity benefits of environmental engagement are less well understood, particularly those associated with attempts to promote pro-environmental behaviour change. This review provides a summary of current knowledge about the key approaches to environmental engagement, the means by which this engagement can lead to biodiversity benefits, and options for evaluating the biodiversity benefits of environmental engagement programs. We begin by providing an outline of the way in which engagement programs can deliver environmental benefits, and then provide an overview of the different approaches to environmental engagement, including how they are believed to promote Environmental Engagement Direct benefits to biodiversity through activities such as: planting, weed control, mapping, monitoring Biodiversity Benefits Indirect benefits to biodiversity associated with pro-environmental attitude and behaviour change, such as changing motivations or habits, building knowledge, issue awareness Citizen science Volunteering Environmental education Information provision Spending time in nature Nature-based tourism Environmental education Citizen science Volunteering Habitat improvements directly benefit target species, Improved knowledge leading to better management decisions Generating social licence to undertake conservation, Purchasing sustainably sourced products, donating to conservation causes, voting based on conservation issues 7 pro-environmental behaviours. We then outline the ways in which behaviours can be measured or inferred as a proxy for environmental benefits

Ask not what nature can do for you: A critique of ecosystem services as a communication strategy

Given the urgent need to raise public awareness on biodiversity issues, we review the effectiveness of ecosystem services as a frame for promoting biodiversity conservation. Since its inception as a communications tool in the 1970s, the concept of ecosystem services has become pervasive in biodiversity policy. While the goal of securing ecosystem services is absolutely legitimate, we argue that it has had limited success as a vehicle for securing public interest and support for nature, which is crucial to securing long-term social mandates for protection. Emerging evidence suggests that focusing on ecosystem services rather than the intrinsic value of nature is unlikely to be effective in bolstering public support for nature conservation. Theory to guide effective communication about nature is urgently needed. In the mean-time, communicators should reflect on their objectives and intended audience and revisit the way nature is framed to ensure maximum resonance

Five lessons to guide more effective biodiversity conservation message framing

Communication and advocacy approaches that influence attitudes and behaviors are key to addressing conservation problems, and the way an issue is framed can affect how people view, judge, and respond to an issue. Responses to conservation interventions can also be influenced by subtle wording changes in statements that may appeal to different values, activate social norms, influence a person's affect or mood, or trigger certain biases, each of which can differently influence the resulting engagement, attitudes, and behavior. We contend that by strategically considering how conservation communications are framed, they can be made more effective with little or no additional cost. Key framing considerations include, emphasizing things that matter to the audience, evoking helpful social norms, reducing psychological distance, leveraging useful biases, and, where practicable, testing messages. These lessons will help communicators think strategically about how to frame messages for greater effect

We have a steak in it: Eliciting interventions to reduce beef consumption and its impact on biodiversity

Beef production is a major driver of biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions globally, and multiple studies recommend reducing beef production and consumption. Although there have been significant efforts from the biodiversity conservation sector toward reducing beef-production impacts, there has been comparatively much less engagement in reducing beef consumption. As a first step to address this gap and identify leverage points, we conducted a policy Delphi expert elicitation. We asked 16 multidisciplinary experts from research and practitioner backgrounds to propose interventions for reducing beef consumption in the United States. Experts generated and critiqued 20 interventions, creating a qualitative dataset that was thematically analyzed to allow the interventions to be prioritized. Effective, feasible interventions included changing perceived social norms, targeting food providers, and increasing the availability and quality of beef alternatives. This work introduces a conservation research agenda for reducing beef consumption and explores a structured process for prioritizing behavioral interventions

Messaging matters: A systematic review of the conservation messaging literature

Changing human behavior and attitudes are key to conserving global biodiversity. Despite evidence from other disciplines that strategic messaging can influence behavior and attitudes, it remains unclear how to best design messages to benefit biodiversity. We conducted a systematic literature review to investigate the status of conservation messaging research, and to evaluate whether studies address essential elements of message design and theory from other disciplines. We show that academic interest in conservation messaging is growing rapidly. However, our results suggest that conservation scientists are not effectively drawing from the long-standing expertise of disciplines with well-established messaging techniques. Many studies do not draw on established behavior change theories or audience segmentation techniques. Given the urgent need to address the loss of biodiversity, we discuss how conservation messaging can draw on existing empirical and theoretical knowledge, with a focus on the application of established techniques used in messaging for pro-environmental behavior