Rare Pride

Country

Anguilla, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & Grenadines

Region

Caribbean

Programme Summary

Rare is an organisation developing approaches to conserving biodiversity through education. Rare Pride works to turn average citizens into life-long advocates for the environment, by giving communities a voice in conserving their natural resources, and by helping individuals better their lives through more sustainable livelihoods. Rare supports literally hundreds of grassroots conservation activities around the world each year - though with a particular focus on the Caribbean and Central America - by providing them with training, technical support, and resources. They, in turn, work to inspire conservation among thousands of local residents, decision-makers, and tourists in some of the planet's most biodiverse locations. Through a combination of both grassroots and mass-marketing techniques, the campaigns attempt to generate wide-ranging support for ecosystem protection on a local or national level.

Communication Strategies

Rare Pride campaigns are based on the principles of social marketing and differ from more traditional types of environmental campaigns. The aim is to dramatically influence attitudes and behaviour by appealing to local people on an emotional and endogenous level - and by making conservation fun. These campaigns draw attention to a charismatic species and transform it into a symbol of local or national pride. Conservation of this species and, by extension, its habitat, becomes a community-wide priority. The goal is to reach every segment of the community, and the Pride campaigns' messages are widely broadcast through an intensive series of activities: posters, billboards, bumper stickers, puppet shows, popular songs, music videos, contests, advertising, sermons and more.

These messages are reinforced by extensive outreach to law enforcement officials, farmers, school children and community leaders. Over the course of approximately a year, the campaign aims to generate both immediate results and develop a solid foundation for ongoing education efforts.

In addition, Rare uses radio entertainment to address the social problems that affect both conservation and quality of life. Locally-produced serial radio dramas seek to influence public attitudes and behaviour on issues ranging from family planning, to deforestation, to corruption.

Development Issues

Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment.

Key Points

Pride Campaigns have been implemented in more than 25 countries in the Caribbean, the Pacific and Latin America. By creating local constituencies for conservation, they have been instrumental in achieving tangible results, including:

The establishment of reserves in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Saint Vincent and Dominica

The creation or enhancement of wildlife legislation in Costa Rica, Monserrat, Rota (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands), St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and Kosrae and Yap (Federated States of Micronesia)

The declaration of national and/or state birds in Grenada, Anguilla, Palau, Yap and Kosrae

The renewal of wildlife populations in targeted regions. For example, the endemic Saint Lucia parrot, the focus of the first campaign, has increased from approximately 100 to more than 500 birds over the past two decades

Campaigns in Mexico's Sierra de Manatlán and El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve promoted "best practices" for sustainable coffee cultivation and reduction of forest fires caused by "slash and burn" agricultural techniques.