It was indeed a great pleasure and an enlightening experience to be at Tanzania’s Mweka College of African Wildlife Management in the company of more than 20 conservationists committed to make a difference in their communities and local environments. The diversity of the participants and high level of the event was depicted in the delivery of the course points which added to the richness of the workshop.

I learned a lot at Mweka—from the social marketing module to hearing from the other participants.  I learned that social marketing is a modern tool for delivering conservation messages in a strategic and more comprehensive way. This workshop exposed me to various skills which include:

• The ability to engage in results and causal chain processes.
• Understanding the concept of audience segmentation—without targeting specific audiences one cannot be an effective communicator.
• Acknowledging the need to focus on behavior and attitude change as critical aspects of a sustainable conservation campaign.
• Accepting the reality that not all threats are critical—effective communicators identify exact conservation threats. This is “no easy task” and involves a rigorous process of engagement.

I must confess that this was a unique opportunity that brought real knowledge which is Rare to obtain. I think that it’s only when you know this that you have knowledge.

Confucius says that when you know a thing—recognize that you know it. And when you don’t know that you know it—you have knowledge. Thus, I know that before attending the Rare social marketing course at Mweka I did not know about social marketing; therefore, I now have knowledge.

This is precisely why I think running a Pride Campaign in my community will help change the attitude and behaviour of the people in my community. For those of us coming from protected areas such as the Great Limpopo Transfronteir Park Conservation Area (GLTPCA) in the southern African countries of Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, we perceive environmental communication and education as both a moral and legal requirement. The 5th IUCN World Parks Congress, Recommendation 5.32 paragraph 2 (i) mandates member states and relevant organizations to, “…use communication tools to build the capacity of local communities to promote the sustainable use of biodiversity in the context of protected areas.”

The challenge for all of us who attended the workshop at Mweka is how we will translate what we learned into action. For Schumacher (1975), “An ounce of practice is generally worth more than a ton of theory.”  In short, talking is good but action is better and therefore I’ll gladly wait to see the results of the April 2008 workshop.

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