This post was written by D’Shan Maycock of Friends of the Environment. She is the Pride campaign manager for the  Abaco Island campaign that seeks to protect the spiny lobster population by reducing the harvesting of juvenile lobsters.

My campaign focusses on reducing juvenile fishing of Spiny Lobsters in Abaco.

Initially I thought the task would be overwhelming and my message unreceptive to fishermen, as I am female and know nothing about fishing other than wanting to eat from a fresh catch. So when I started working with fishermen, I had to think of a creative way to engage them without having them ignore my message.

I decided the best way was to call public community meetings with fishermen using visual media to create attention. I had a local designer make a floating banner for my fishermen’s meetings that were displayed in various communities at least one week prior to the meeting date with a key message,  ”Come and find out how you can be a responsible fisherman and improve your catch.”

At the beginning of the meetings I will ask for a few fishermen to volunteer to come to the front and say in a few words why they are proud to be a fisherman. I get responses such as “I enjoy fishing,” “I am my own boss,” “I can decide when I go out,” “Fishing is my life,” or “I can provide for my family.”

I probe some of the shyer fishermen by asking them for more information: “Why should I buy from you or your community?” or “What makes your catch stand out from the rest?” I get responses such as: “We are the best on the island,” or “We take pride in fishing the best from the sea and selling the best.” Even the top buyers agree with some fishermen and say “Yes, they get the best fish from them.”

I then congratulate them and give a brief overview of the campaign and why they should care about what I have to say. I let them know that it is up to them to offer the best as, they are the ones ultimatetly responsible for the income they desire; so they must ensure that they fish and handle their catch properly and only fish in season, if they want to be sure to get top dollar and ensure that there would be more fish for the future.

In my presentaion I include photos from previous community visits which include photos of fishermen and community persons from their communities. This gives them a sense of pride and keeps them interested in my talk. In these meetings, I also partnered with local buyers, processors, and exporters, as well as the Department of Marine Resources who then talk about their specific role.

The industry talks about  standards and quality control and incentives for gving a great catch fished in season and up to the proper lobster tail length. The Department of Marine Resources talks about the importance of the law and the reasons for setting seasons and size limits. They also talk about improvements to the fishing industry, which includes meeting new standards for international market access, where the bulk of the money is made in the fishing industry.

By the end of the meeting fishermen understand where they fit into the big picture of making sure the best lobster tails are sold to the international market, which they caught and made possible for the Bahamas to be amongst the top five countries of lobster exports. The fishermen then commit to being better stewards of our marine resources.

Industry leaders have reported back to me saying that they have already seen major imporovements in quality and a reduction in juvenile lobsters being sold to them since these meetings began in January. This message has really caught the attention of the local fisherman who now understand why it is important to protect our marine environment and obey season and size limits for future populations.

At the end of these meetings, a stranger like me now becomes a friend to the fishermen. They thank me for creating the opportunity for fishermen, lobster industry leaders, and the government to be able to talk in an open forum about concerns they have with the fishing industry and what they can do to help. Campaign materials are then distributed to fishermen who are proud to recieve them.

On July 20th, 11 campaign managers graduated from our Guadalajara VII Rare Pride cohort. Campaign managers spent two years with rigorous academic study in social marketing and communication, while also working in their local communities to tackle tough conservation challenges. They received a master’s degree in communications at the end of their two-year program.

Oswaldo Contreras, our Latin America Pride program manager, was at the event and wrote about it:

“We are very good at doing research, and we have done this for years, but something we are not so good at is to inspire people,”  said Charles Duncan, our donor partner organization from Manomet. “This is something Rare helped us do, and our Campaign Managers in Argentina showed us that no matter what obstacles they had  in their way, they did and continue to do a great job of inspiring people to do conservation.”

Eleven campaign managers from the Latinos Extremos cohort (self named due to having CMs that came from Mexico and Argentina – the two extremes of Latin America) presented the results of their Pride campaigns developed under four themes: natural protected Areas, fisheries Management,  solid Waste Management, and forest Fire prevention.

This event took place at ITESO, Jesuit University of Guadalajara,  where students and professors from the university showed up, as well as some park directors from our LAPs, other protected areas, donor organizations such as Conanp and Manomet members, media and experts from universities and other strategic organizations as Fondo Mexicano.

Campaign managers had a chance to present their results and defend their projects against poignant questions from expert panels in each theme. Adrian Mendes, COO of NPAs from Conanp said with emotion in his voice to one of the set of CMs, “It is very nice to see future executive directors from NPAs in action, I can see a nice future for the management of our sites in CONANP.”

Each set of thematic campaigns did some mini Pride activities with the audience and delivered some Pride materials to them, showed videos, songs, and even  the Ameca Jaguar mascot showed up to dance traditional Mexican songs from a Pride campaign. The audience also could see all Pride materials from these campaigns at an exhibition area outside the auditorium.

Marco Sanchez, Vice President on Communications from Conanp said, “We are eager to find a way to have these campaigns last for more than two years, and we would like to look pursue this with Rare.”

Finally, all 11 CMs received their completion certificates and traditional Rare parrot pin for a Pride Campaign. You can just  imagine how excited  these conservation warriors were to finalize the Pride process after two hard years of joy, challenges, and effort. All of them were proud of their work and ready to continue their path as conservationists.

At the end of the day, everyone got together and joined with Mariachis and Tequila to have a great party, not for a good bye, but for a see you soon. All Latinos Extremos, our first 2.0 cohort with a master’s degree, are on the way to do better on the Rare Network.

Some more photos from the event:

Many of our conservation campaigns are entering the home stretch with just a few months to go. Elaina Todd, our campaign manager for effective watershed management in Guam, recently wrote a blog post on RarePlanet talking about how her experience with Rare and her campaign has changed how she views conservation.

The campaign she is running will protect the coral reefs in Southern Guam by influencing the local communities to prevent and report wildland fires in order to reduce harmful sedimentation. Below is her note:

There is still so much to do! At the same time, I couldn’t believe there were only three months left!

As I work on my follow-up grant application, I am trying to think about the future, but find I keep reflecting back on the past. With time seeming to fly by, where was I two years ago today?  Where was I one year ago today?  Where will I be one year from today?

It’s a pretty crazy thing to think about. I highly recommend it!

I opened up RarePlanet this morning and looked at all the new blogs.  Things are moving along with the campaigns, no doubt about that! Changes are occurring.

We are all making innovative moves in our communities and garnering the attention of the media, our partners, and our people. And it seems that each of us is changing along the way as well. The entire Rare process has changed my life for sure.

I have learned so much. I have met so many new people. And I feel like I have grown in so many ways.

I will never look at environmental education the same way again (yes Adam, I said it- I am a convert).  I will never again embark on a new project without first understanding specific goals and measures of success (man have I become annoying to work with!).

I will never assume and always pretest! And let’s be honest, as useful as they are, I will forever hate surveys. If I did my own theory of change, I’d say that I have changed in every stage!  My knowledge, attitudes & perceptions, communication, and behavior have all shifted because of this campaign.

Two years ago, I couldn’t have imagined that I would be buddies with a bunch of hunters, buying camouflage clothes, sniffing salt licks, discussing deer urine varieties and getting my firearms license! Ha! Or that I would know the issues of the hunters, the conservation officers, the fire department, and the forestry department (notice the lack or marine anything in there!)

Never did I think I would be able to name each southern mayor, know their staff, or organize a community event that didn’t involve the ocean. We’ll save the long winded version for the final report, but I am just amazed at how different life is now.

As I work on my follow up plan, I see so much potential for the future. There is still so much to do. In two years I have barely finished the foundation.

After November, the work will continue. I don’t know exactly what that will look like, but I can say that I feel prepared through the thousands of hours of Rare training (okay, maybe a slight exaggeration!), the experiences along the way (both good and bad), the tremendous support I am now getting from my lead and partner agencies, and from the excitement that is brewing around town about what’s to come.

Probably the biggest change for me right now is that this campaign has become about so much more than the number of fires per year, the turbidity of the water, or even the health of the reef. It is about understanding people, their needs, and the deficiencies in the system to meet those needs.

It is about culture and respect.

It is about listening to what people say (and don’t say). It is about building relationships and nurturing those relationships through honesty and communication.

Thanks Margie for being the catalyst to this introspection.  It is good to know that I am not the only one who is spending a little time each week to reflect and appreciate the process. To look back at where we came from, to look at where we are, and to look forward and attempt to even fathom what’s to come.

I highly recommend it!

On August 2nd, seven Pride Campaign Managers successfully graduated from Rare’s first Pride cohort in China at Southwest Forestry University in Kunming. Over the past two years, all of the seven Pride campaign managers have been inspiring innovations in hundreds of Chinese communities to address daunting threats of deforestation, overgrazing, and poaching in China’s Inner Mongolia and Yunnan, Gansu ,and Jilin provinces.

Rare hosted a reception in Kunming on August 2nd to highlight the bright spots that the first China Pride cohort has achieved. The leaders of  local Pride partners, international partners such as TNC and WCS, candidates from the upcoming China Pride Campaign cohort, media outlets, Yunnan Forestry Department, and grassroots NGOs attended the event. Seven Campaign Managers were invited as panelist to showcase their best practices during their campaigns.

The event started with a video documentary of the Hunchun Pride Campaign to protect the last remaining Siberian tigers. The Campaign Manager Jianmin Lang told a story of an old hunter who was attacked by a tiger when he was poaching many years ago. During the Pride campaign in Hunchun, the hunter realized the urgency to stop setting snares and join the patrolling team protecting tigers.

Li Xiaohong from the Yuhe Campaign to protect the Golden Monkey, who is also a professor at a local university, shared his experience about being a movie director for the first time in his life. Because the campaign survey showed the community residents liked to watch movies, Xiaohong decided to make a short movie about a story of a college student who helped his family adopt efficient stoves.

“I had never thought I could make a movie,” he said. “Now even my son wants to play a role in my movie!” Professor Li was very proud that his movie not only attracted huge crowds in the communities, but that it also helped him raise funding to build more stoves when he played the movie at a local university.

Meng Gen from Alxa in Inner Mongolia showed a special “darling bag” made by all her family members for her Pride Campaign to protect local forests. The bag is commonly seen on the motorcycle at her site, but her special “darling bags” are passing the love of nature from one family to another. “I feel myself, my family, and the community residents are tied closer through the Pride Campaign,” she said.

Zhuoma Sina from the Baima Snow Mountain campaign to protect the Golden Monkey caught everyone’s eyes with her 50-meter-long drawing cloth, which was done by the school children at her site. Through her Pride Campaign, not only did the children learn more about protecting the Yunnan Golden Monkey, but they also drew their passion for conservation on a piece of cloth. Their parents and even their teachers couldn’t believe these amazing drawings was done by children.

Honglian Duan from the Gaoligong Mountain campaign to protect the White-eyebrows gibbon shared her experience of how a cooking contest generated huge interest in her community, it inspired women to adopt electronic cooking stoves, and it reduce fuelwood usage.

“We were very surprised to find during the survey that more than 60 percent of the community residents, including those who didn’t attend the contest, were able to tell lots of details of the contest,” Honglian said. “This means the community was really excited about this event, because they have never seen such an interesting event in their community.”

Dao Meibiao from Dashanbao Nature Reserve summarized “three Pride” as the result of his campaign — pride of himself, pride of the community, and pride of the Black-necked crane. During his Pride campaign to protect the winter habitat of the Black-necked crane, he hosted a “Crane Festival” to welcome the black necked crane arriving at his site in November 2009.

The whole community went wild when a two-meter tall crane costume showed up at the festival. “An old woman went up to touch the costume and told me, ‘I have lived here for so many years and seen Black-necked crane every year, but I never got the chance to touch the Black-necked crane. Now I know how it felt!’”

At last, Huang Gang from TNC passed around a Tibetan house model to the audience, and explained how this model helped his community members to understand the concept of green building. Four demonstration houses were completed within one year, despite the road construction and bad weather. An additional three more houses were built by other villagers who voluntarily adapted the techniques of green house building. His campaign protected the coniferous forest on Meili Snow Mountain by training local carpenters and community members in green building techniques in order to reduce unsustainable logging.

All these bright spots are the result of the hard work and great team support of the Pride partners. As many campaign managers said, “Pride Campaign is a life changing experience, and will shape the path of the rest of my life.”

Below are some more photos from the festivities:

Through a Pride campaign, Rare uses innovative and creative social marketing tools to inspire communities to take action for the environment. Pride campaigns are locally run and use everything from mascots, billboards, and pop songs to bumper stickers, posters, and puppet shows to rally whole communities around the cause of environmental protection.

“This site is trying to increase tiger [populations] by 50 percent by 2015 and reduce the illegal hunting pressure on prey by approximately the same percentage.”

If the above embedded video is not displaying properly, click here to view it.

Troy Hansel, deputy director at Wildlife Conservation Society, Vietiane LAO PDR, talks about how Wildlife Conservation Society and Rare are working to raise tiger populations in Laos. There may be as few as nine tigers left in the in Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area. There are as few as 3,500 tigers left in the world.

Wildlife Conservation Society’s Rare Pride campaign will protect the prey of the last tiger population in Laos by celebrating hunters who hunt wild animals legally and by promoting the reporting of poachers who threaten the food security of local communities.

Megan Hill, Rare’s Senior Director, Cohort Learning Networks, spent a week in Colombia with barrier removal consultant, Robert Yaguache, visiting four different Rare Pride campaign sites in four different regions of Colombia.

Robert is from Ecuador and is an expert in designing and negotiating  agreements where farmers are compensated for conserving their land in exchange for the water that their forests generate for people downstream.

Above is Robert (center) and the Corpoguavio team near Guasca, Colombia talking with a farm administrator about his farming techniques. Guasca is near Bogota and adjacent to Chingaza National Park. They are standing in a newly cleared potato field. Note how fertile the soil is; clearing land for potatoes is a major threat to this region.

Paramos are high alpine plateaus in the Andes, between the forest line and permanent snow line.  This plant is an example of typical paramo vegetation, starting at about 3,000 meters.  While it might seem surprising, the paramo ecosystems of the Andes are home to over 5,000 plant species, nearly 60 percent of which are endemic.

Robert (center) spends time working with Javier (left), who’s worked in this region for nearly seven years and Roberto (right), an extensionist working with Corpoguavio, helping them prioritize the best lands and which farmers to target for negotiations.

We left Guasca and headed to a town called Roncesvalles.

In this community, ProAves is a leader in promoting Yellow-eared parrot conservation. In a move that rarely happens, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) just announced that the status of the Yellow-eared Parrot is being downgraded from “Critically Endangered” to “Endangered.” The move recognizes the remarkable achievements of three conservation organizations — Fundación ProAves, Fundación Loro Parque, and American Bird Conservancy (ABC) — in conserving the species.

The painting featured on the telephone poll above is a symbol of ProAves work in Roncesvalles.  In ten years, the number of parrots has gone from 90 to more than 600 due to their work to stop harvesting of the Wax palm (palma de cera), especially during the Lenten season when the palms are harvested for Palm Sunday celebrations. ProAves does regular monitoring of the parrots.

A fence made of Wax Palm.

Heidy showing a map of the watershed in Rocesvalle.  Gonzalo (left) is a member of the ProAves team and a local farmer.

Next stop: San Vicente de Chucuri (pictured above)

Mules bringing down fruit grown inside the Serrania de Yariguies National Park, home to three different AZE priority species, including the Cerulean Warbler and Gorgeted Wood-quail.  Clearing forest for berry growing is a threat here.

Above is an example of agroforestry in this region. Along the streams coffee and cacao are harvested. The park is negotiating with landowners who had title to their land before the park was declared to buy them out.

This is San Vicente’s water treatment facility.  With more land conserved in the upper watershed, water quality will improve.

Last stop: Farallones de Cali National Park

Next stop:  Queremal. Above is a photo of Queremal, near Cali,  from the top of the watershed.

We traveled around with Pride campaign manager Jaime Alexander Millán Castillo. Here he is opening a stakeholder workshop with a tool he learned in Rare’s Pride campaign training, the web of life game.

Stakeholders discussing how they can be involved in the campaign at Farallones de Cali National Park.

The flower (the queremal) shown on this poster is already a source of pride at this site and is used here in publicity for an Andean music festival.  Jaime will include this flower as part of his campaign design.

Jaime at a hummingbird feeder along the San Antonio Km. 18 Important Bird Area.  Colombia has the most bird species in the world — more than 1,800!  Here he gets close to a White-necked Jacobin (Florisuga mellivora).

To work, Pride campaign mascots must tap into local emotions and identity. Campaign manager Zhuoma Sina explains the thinking behind her Pride campaign mascot:

“The snub-nosed monkey, like China’s precious giant panda, is known throughout our country. They are believed to bring people happiness, safety and give the mountains endless good fortune. We gave the mascot a human name because the snub-nosed monkey has facial features and expressions that are startlingly like people, right down to their red lips. The name “Lulu” is significant because in local Tibetan culture, the family’s youngest child, often nicknamed Lulu, is the most pampered – in hopes that he or she grows up strong, healthy and successful. Because we want to treat the reserve with the same kind of care, the name seemed perfect.”

Blue Venture’s Rare Pride campaign on the Andavadoaka Coast in Madagascar will ensure the health of the world’s third largest coral reef by working with local fishers and communities to protect juvenile fish species by eliminating the use of beach seine nets and the practice of poison fishing. This is a success story from that campaign.

During the month of March, Campaign Manager Gildas Andriamalala made plans to organize three leadership and governance training workshops for the leaders of 24 villages in his campaign site. The workshops were delayed, however, in order to accomodate an election being held which would appoint two leaders to the Velondriake MPA (marine protected area) Management Committee.  These individuals would in turn be the designated village leaders on marine matters.

As Blue Ventures helped to facilitate the election, Gildas used the opportunity to stimulate discussion among the community and ask community members to make public statements in regard to local law (known as Dina) as it relates to marine matters.  As a result of these discussions, Gildas came up with the idea to produce a panel for each community that represents what the Dina means to them.  This panel would then be placed by the waterfront of the community, in clear view, to inform everyone of the law and to emphasize that it is being enforced.

“As you can see from the pictures, none of the panels are the same,” Gildas said. “They all had their own idea in every village. Some of them didn’t really care about attractiveness in terms of presentation and writing, but some did it very well.”

This was, in social marketing terms, a brilliant idea. Producing and posting the panels would be a minute task for the community, but it would create significant buy-in and ownership of the campaign.

“The most important thing is that the messages are out and observed by all of the community. For example, in Lamboara, they wrote down everything included in their Dina on the panel,” said Gildas.

Lamboara panel translation: “Velondriake protected area. I’m Vezo; this is why I stop people from doing these destructive practices: Using poison fishing in all regions, buying fish caught from poison fishing, using gear that kill juveniles (mosquito net, gillnet, etc), using beach seine, doing coral overturning and coral destruction, hunting turtle and dolphin, poaching all type of reserve (octopus, sea cucumber, fish, etc), cutting mangroves without authorization, littering along the beach.”

Agnolignoly panel translation: “Stop poison fishing, beach seining, and coral overturning.  Fine: 10,000 ar/person if caught.  I’M VEZO”

Ankindranoke panel translation: “Stop beach seine, poison fishing, and coral overturning. Anyone caught poison fishing pays about a hundred thousand ariary. It is also forbidden to do night diving. It is also forbidden to collect poisoned fish floating  on the surface. The broad community is also allowed to catch people with the committee members.”

Tampolove panel translation: “Go fish in the sea but don’t use poison, beach seine and coral overturning. It’s good to protect marine resources for our future generations’ living.”

Vatoavo panel translation: “‘Velondriake Area’ ISONY- VATOAVO. It is forbidden here to do beach seine and poison fishing. It is forbidden to cut mangrove without permission. Fine: 40-000Ar or 40000Ar”

Above is the English version of our campaign poster for species presevation in Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area, Laos.

The poster is used to help explain the purpose of the conservation campaign and the necessity of protecting the prey of the tiger population in the area. The posters have been making appearances in local villages and with the Red Muntjac campaign mascot.

You can learn more about Wildlife Conservation Society’s Rare Pride campaign on RarePlanet. The campaign will protect the prey of the last tiger population in Laos by celebrating hunters who hunt wild animals legally and by promoting the reporting of poachers who threaten the food security of local communities.