News & Insights
Guest Article: We need to talk about Nature: Challenges of digital community engagement on a complex global issue
Article by Russell De’Ath and Serinde Van Wijk, Natural Resources Wales
“Nature and Us” is a year-long project to involve the people of Wales in a national conversation about the future of our natural environment. The evidence is stark – if we continue to consume resources as we do now, we would need 2.4 planets to sustain us, and 1 in 5 species is at threat of extinction by 2050. We need to change the way we live.
The project is hosted by Natural Resources Wales with support from Welsh Government. It aims to develop a shared vision for the natural environment in 2030, 2050, and the pathways needed to get there. It explores:
- how our actions impact on the natural environment,
- how society’s relationship with nature needs to change, and
- what we all need to do now, and over the next 30 years to prevent further loss of nature.
The project was initiated just before the pandemic struck. All initial thoughts of going out to community centres and village halls across Wales and holding face-to-face conversation were dashed, and so we had to redesign our involvement entirely online. Here we touch on some of the challenges and benefits that we have encountered along the way.
Nature and Us is essentially a visioning exercise, but one designed to raise awareness too – especially in communities and groups that are not aware of (or don’t have the means, opportunity and/or motivation to act upon) the climate and nature emergencies. We are dealing with a topic that is very emotive for people, and something that many people feel powerless to do anything about.
To involve and inform people, we have to grab their attention quickly, get complex messages across in simple language, and offer a range of ways for different people to participate in keeping with their comfort zone. Nature and Us uses a social media ad campaign using meta, google and YouTube platforms to promote involvement in an already crowded marketplace. We have also maximised the use of our existing networks and sought to build new relationships with other stakeholders to help promote the campaign. People can get involved at www.natureandus.wales by completing a survey or joining online events, but also by uploading their own creative ideas and outcomes of conversations they may have had with their work or social networks. We have adapted elements of the UK Government Futures toolkit in our approach, including the use of scenarios to imagine what the future might look like, and recognising signs of future trends that are starting to happen now. There is plenty of stimulation and food for thought.
The subject matter does not easily lend itself to thinking about Wales as an entity. It is hard enough for people to engage with a topic where the causes and consequences of their actions are not directly visible either locally, in Wales, let alone the global impacts. There is plenty of unfamiliar territory. Nature is often framed as if it is something that exists “over there” to be observed, behind a fence, or in a documentary on the TV. In reality we are all part of nature, and everything we do has an impact on it. People’s experience and awareness of that will be different – we know people noticed nature more during the lockdown – and winning hearts and minds is a big part of the objective here. So we have a dual purpose: 1) to build awareness of the nature emergency and the need for lifestyle change, without telling people what to do, and 2) to ask peoples’ own views on what needs to change.
One of the benefits of the online campaign, as well as increased volume of returns, is that it enables us to collect user data and understand user behaviour. In just the first 5 weeks, and with a relatively small budget, the Nature and Us website had over 4 million impressions and 40,000 visitors, over 2,000 of which completed a survey. We are on track to record numbers of participants for a consultation run by our own organisation.
The data though paints an interesting but perhaps predictable picture of who we are communicating with. Despite our efforts, the vast majority of respondents to date are white, female, and over 45 – likely to be already engaged in environmental issues. The digital data has helped us to adapt and tweak the campaign in real-time to promote to younger age cohorts and help identify the gaps in our reach – something that we haven’t been able to do through our consultations before.
We are now questioning how the online platform can ever reach everyone, particularly seldom heard voices and young people, not forgetting the digitally excluded! Whilst the volume of returns is high, there is a risk that the voices of the majority are overshadowing the seldom heard voices. So we are planning to take a second bite of the cherry. Once this initial ten-week involvement phase is over, we are planning to replay the voices and views captured throughout this phase as part of a second phase of involvement later in the year to the audiences we failed to reach.
We plan to work with different groups of stakeholders to help us analyse the results, by playing back statements and stories captured throughout the conversation and seeking people’s reaction – whether they strongly agree, disagree and why? Doing this will help us better understand where the areas of consensus and contention are that we need to better understand and deliberate. It will help us to truly see what different demographics think about options for action. Digital technology will continue to play a role with both data capture, monitoring and raising awareness but we conclude that there is no substitute for conversation. We have to get more people talking about nature. We have to combine the power of digital engagement with real time conversations, to harness the transformation needed for nature, and for us.
About the authors
Russell De’ath
Specialist Advisor, Natural Resources Wales
Originally a graduate of Town Planning with my thesis on public participation – I have worked in the environment sector for 20 years, more recently supporting the implementation of the new legislation on the Well-being of Future Generations in Wales.
Now working on the Nature and Us programme for NRW, I have returned full circle – looking to put public participation at the heart of the response to the nature and climate emergencies.
Dr Serinde van Wijk
Nature and Us Programme Manager, Natural Resource Wales
Serinde joined Natural Resources Wales as a project manager in 2019. A biologist by training, she initially came to Wales to pursue a PhD in 2007. This was followed by various research comms and project management roles at Bangor University, always with the environment at the heart of her work. She joined Nature and Us in August last year and has been enjoying working on this dynamic programme ever since.