South Okanagan-Similkameen Conservation Program--Community-based Social Marketing Project.

Abstract

Many scientists working toward conservation in the South Okanagan-Similkameen (SOS) agree that environmental problems are social problems, and threats to species and their habitats in the SOS are, for the most part, human caused. There is also a growing awareness that the solutions to environmental issues are based on social as much as natural sciences. One of the approaches of the South Okanagan-Similkameen Conservation Program (SOSCP) is to foster sustainable human behavior as a way to recover species at risk and their habitats through conventional outreach activities. Community-based social marketing draws on the methodology of social science research and applies it to fostering, maintaining and evaluating behaviour change. The South Okanagan-Similkameen Community-based Social Marketing Project was designed to enhance the success of SOSCP outreach efforts by uncovering the barriers to effective behavioral change and identifying the most effective set of tools needed to move individuals to act for species at risk recovery. The research gathered qualitative and quantitative data on perceptions of conservation of species at risk through facilitated focus groups and surveys. The resulting increase in understanding of the individual beliefs, perceptions and awareness levels within the community enabled the framing of recommendations for future positioning of messages and use of tools for outreach activities. The survey revealed some interesting information regarding the perception of wilderness and levels of concern for its protection. Only by having this ground-level information on public attitudes to, and aspirations for, the environment can we monitor the effectiveness of efforts to foster sustainable behaviour.

De nombreux scientifiques oeuvrant dans le domaine de la conservation dans la region de South Okanagan-Similkameen (SOS) s'entendent pour dire que les problemes environnementaux sont egalement des problemes de societe, et que les menaces pour les especes et leur habitat sont, dans la region de SOS, pour la plupart attribuables aux activites des humains. Il y a egalement une hausse du niveau de sensibilisation au fait que les solutions aux problemes environnementaux doivent se fonder autant sur les sciences sociales que sur les sciences naturelles. L'une des approches du programme de conservation South Okanagan-Similkameen Conservation Program (SOSCP) consiste a encourager des comportements humains durables comme moyen de retablir les especes en peril et leur habitat, par le biais d'activites de sensibilisation conventionnelles. Le marketing social communautaire s'inspire de la methodologie de recherche en sciences sociales, et l'applique a la promotion, au maintien et a l'evaluation des changements de comportement. Le projet de marketing social communautaire de la region de South Okanagan-Similkameen a ete concu afin de mettre en valeur des efforts de sensibilisation du SOSCP, en mettant en lumiere les obstacles qui s'opposent a des changements de comportement utiles, et en designant les ensembles d'outils les plus efficaces pour inciter les gens a agir de maniere a assurer le retablissement des especes en peril. Cette recherche a permis de recueillir des donnees qualitatives et quantitatives sur les perceptions relativement a la conservation des especes en peril, par le biais de groupes de discussion diriges et de sondages. Les resultats ont permis une meilleure comprehension des croyances, des perceptions et des differents niveaux de sensibilisation dans la communaute, qui a ensuite servi a elaborer des recommandations quant au positionnement des futurs messages et a l'utilisation des outils de sensibilisation. L'enquete a mis en lumiere certains renseignements interessants concernant la perception du milieu sauvage et le niveau de preoccupation quant a sa protection. C'est seulement en ayant acces a cette information fondamentale sur les attitudes du public et sur ses aspirations relativement a l'environnement que nous pouvons evaluer l'efficacite des efforts visant a encourager des comportements humains qui soient <> pour l'environnement.

Key Words

Community-based social marketing, habitat conservation, species at risk, outreach

Introduction: Richness, rarity and risk in the South Okanagan-Similkameen

The South Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys of British Columbia are a unique landscape of international importance. Known as Canada's "hotspot" for species richness and rarity, the region is an ecological link for plants and animals between the interior grasslands of British Columbia with the Great Basin and dry desert ecosystems to the south. It is a diverse and complex landscape of grasslands, shrub-steppe, dry forest, rugged terrain, wetlands, lakes, rivers, and streams in close proximity to each other. A moderate climate and rich soils left by glacial activity contribute to a landscape with one of the highest rankings for biodiversity in the country. Some species here are not known to exist anywhere else in Canada, or in some cases, the world. Unfortunately, this is not the area's only distinction. The human population of the Okanagan-Similkameen (SOS) river basin is growing faster than any of the 23 other major river basins in Canada (Statistics Canada 2003). Human population growth and associated agricultural, rural and urban development continue, leading to accelerated loss and fragmentation of habitat, increased threats to species, and the overdrawing of natural services provided by our ecosystems. Now, it is recognized as having the greatest concentration of species at risk in the country.

It is because of the qualities of richness, rarity, and risk, that the SOS has become a focal area for cooperative efforts to conserve biodiversity. The South Okanagan-Similkameen Conservation Program (SOSCP) is a partnership of 37 organizations with shared interests in conservation. The Partners are committed to sustaining the diversity of indigenous plants and animals and the continuity of this ecological corridor through a number of strategies, including habitat securement, integration of traditional ecological knowledge and western science, enhanced stewardship on private and public lands, and the promotion of ecologically sustainable land-use. Each of these strategies for achieving conservation objectives depends on expanded community support and involvement, which is fostered through outreach to almost all sectors of the community. Planning, implementation, and evaluation of outreach efforts have developed as a significant and central component of the SOSCP.

Environmental problems are often human problems. In the SOS, the greatest known threats to species at risk are loss, degradation, and fragmentation of habitat due to total conversion of land to urban and rural use, as well as agricultural developments (Bezener et al. 2006). Many of those working in the realm of environmental sciences are shifting away from a purely ecological and physical framework to include a multi-disciplinary approach that includes behavioral and social science perspectives that appear to have the potential for influencing and fostering sustainable human behavior.

Our understanding of the origins and influences of human behaviour, including how we care for our environment, have also undergone a shift. The key to steering humanity to a pathway of sustainability, some think, is to alter the course of thoughts, feelings, beliefs, tastes and expressed behaviour amongst individuals that are determined by our cultural environment (Ehrlich 2002). The SOSCP has taken steps to successfully bridge the physical and social sciences and has begun in earnest to apply these concepts on a regional scale.

Influencing behaviour at the community level through direct contact

Community-based Social Marketing (CBSM) is a practice of strategies and methods that builds on research in social psychology, education, marketing, advertising and anthropology to provide a powerful set of tools for planning, implementing and evaluating changes in behaviour. Community-based Social Marketing is suggested as a complementary approach to regulatory and information intensive campaigns (McKenzie-Mohr and Smith 1999). Compared to conventional marketing techniques that alter existing behaviour for consumer preferences, getting people to adopt new behaviours is much more complicated.

The strength of the CBSM approach lies in the power of developing social norms and having individuals' perspectives at the centre of all planning and implementation. The approach is tailored to getting at the underlying issues of why people either do, or do not adopt sustainable behaviour. Community-based Social Marketing theory conceives that people do not participate in sustainable activities because they either don't know about the activity and its benefits, or they perceive significant barriers to adopting the behaviour, or they believe they benefit more from continuing with their present behaviour (McKenzie-Mohr and Smith 1999). Further, social science findings indicate that people naturally gravitate to actions that have high benefits and few barriers and these perceived benefits and barriers differ among individuals. In order to develop effective methods for changing behaviour, those working for conservation must understand what drives behaviour within our audiences. We can then prepare strategies that increase the likelihood that benefits will occur while employing tools that are proven to foster long-lasting behaviour change. The approach is deeply focused on knowing audiences. According to McKenzie-Mohr and Smith (1999), the recipe for "doing" community-based social marketing is: