Communicating Biodiversity

This 10-page paper for Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is the distillation of a white paper, Assuring Biodiversity, drawing from private sector expertise, on strategic branding to help biodiversity specialists strengthen their communications strategies. The document proposes that fragmentation and confusion is hampering communication on biodiversity and that basic marketing principles could build biodiversity into a known and valued concept which can compete effectively for people’s attention, time, and dedication. The paper is formatted by proposing the 11 questions below:

1. What human need is Biodiversity addressing?
2. Who are the 'end users' of Biodiversity?
3. Which issues and trends are impacting the market for Biodiversity?
4. What are the channels for delivering Biodiversity?
5. What is the Biodiversity 'product'?
6. What further value could be added to Biodiversity to differentiate it from competing ideas?
7. What is the big idea/brand story behind Biodiversity?
8. What is the best strategy for investing in Biodiversity?
9. How can we take the whole world with us?
10. How can biodiversity be communicated?
11. What are the goals of Biodiversity?

After identifying the human needs for biodiversity; the stakeholders and challenges, such as competing market concepts; and channels for delivery of the brand, the document isolates three biodiversity areas people can buy or buy into: genetic diversity, organism diversity, and ecosystem diversity, with associated 'products' like food, water, and medicine, and services like cleaning the water, purifying the air, and regulating the weather.


The paper suggests making the benefits more visible by added value that might distinguish biodiversity in branding. It proposes a possible centralised global biodiversity library of knowledge, a biodiversity passport scheme to demonstrate loyalty to a global concept, a means of sharpening the experience of biodiversity, and a way to more specifically characterise its services and values.

It proposes the need for a core story of biodiversity which, in the telling, presents the "basic strategic conflict at the heart of current global decision-making."


In answer to the best strategy for investing in biodiversity, two strategies are proposed:

• the market-led approach of trading mechanisms which allow environmental costs and benefits to be translated into cash terms and incorporated into core business processes which bypass the need for state control; or
• the target-led approach of setting global targets, then
  relying upon co-operative mechanisms between national governments to develop policies, mechanisms, and controls to reach them.

Specific communication requirements are listed as:

1. Smarter market segmentation;
2. Better co-ordination and collaboration among key stakeholders;
3. Clearer and more compelling messaging.
4. Greater mass-media outreach;
5. Much greater personalisation of content;
6. Better use of paid-for media; and
7. Much better use of technology.

The document concludes with the two branding challenges of developing a much more compelling emotional story - an umbrella communications campaign which would support and contextualise more specific stakeholder efforts, and personalising the benefits of biodiversity - exploring creative ways to make the impact of biodiversity visible in everyday life.


A summary of the full paper, Assuring Biodiversity, is available under "Related Summaries" below.