Paul Butler, Rare Senior VP, Global Programs, reports on a visit to a Pride campaign in Peru.
I guess deep down the whole team was a little nervous boarding a small Peruvian plane to fly over the Andes to reach our project site in Oxapampa, Peru. After all, less than a month ago, WWF lost a cadre of staff in a tragic helicopter accident in the Himalayas. The plane would take a team from Rare and marketing gurus Arnold Worldwide to visit a Rare Pride project site in the Yanachaga-Chemillen National Park. Pride campaigns utilize a charismatic flagship species, (the spectacled bear, in the case of the Oxapampa campaign) which become a symbol of local pride and acts as a messenger to build support for habitat and wildlife protection. Marketing tools – such as billboards, posters, songs, music videos, sermons, comic books, and puppet shows – make conservation messages positive, compelling, relevant, and fun for the community. Campaigns appeal to people on an emotional level, generating an increased sense of pride and public stewardship that goes beyond mere awareness-raising. Pride campaigns involve and engage every segment of the community: teachers, business and religious leaders, elected officials, and the average citizen.
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Established in 1961, the 122,000 ha Yanachaga-Chemillen National Park was set up to preserve the headwaters of Palcazú and Huancabamba-Pozuzo rivers as well as fauna and flora including over 100 species of mammal and 450 species of bird. It is an area under threat from deforestation and clearing land for agriculture and cattle raising. Rare is working with an outstanding local group called ProNaturaleza and our local campaign manager, Cesar Raul Laura Contreras, on a project to raise awareness about the plight of the park and the spectacled bear. Our trip would take the team to see Cesar in action in the communities and schools building pride in the environment and looking at less destructive alternative ways to generate income and jobs. The plane, a nine seater, afforded excellent views of the Andes that rise to the east of Peru’s capital of Lima. Some of the higher peaks were still snow-covered, many were blanketed in cloud, making the flight even more exciting, especially as the plane decended and wove its way through the peaks to land at the isolated San Ramon airstrip, where we were greeted by a cow on the “runway” and a contingent of local police in what looked like an Indian tut tut. I think we all knew this would be an exciting trip.
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