Assuring Biodiversity

This discussion paper identifies strategies for communicating the importance and urgency of conserving biodiversity by using a 'brand-building' approach. It has been commissioned by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). Its aim, according to the author, is not to prescribe any particular solution, but to explore options based upon brand insights, rather than formally researched stakeholder auditing.

The author discusses branding and whether 'biodiversity' is a brand. He does an analysis of biodiversity and potential ways to communicate it, including strategies for bringing in the community, for investing in it, for focusing on the larger story behind it, and for adding values that differentiate it from competing ideas. He examines products that add value, varied channels for communicating about biodiversity, issues and trends impacting the delivery of biodiversity messages, and human needs connected with it. His conclusions present strategies on two paths to message communication: one focused on the individual stakeholder investment and on the individual behaviour "thumbprint", and the other focused on the larger global audience. A final section describes strategy-to-action planning.

A strategy paper based on this longer document is summarised as "Communicating Biodiversity" in the Related Summaries below.