Communicating the Wonders of the Mekong to build support for conservation
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Communication plays an important role in building understanding and support for science and conservation. One of the goals of the interdisciplinary Wonders of the Mekong project is to communicate the region’s diverse wonders, including its richness of wildlife and fishes, its unique hydrology, and its deep cultural connection to the people of the region. Through the use of images, video, and original stories, the project has used Facebook and other social media channels to reach an audience of Cambodians and other Southeast Asians. This effort has included the creation of the Mekong Conservation Heroes program, which uses online profiles of stories, photos, and video to shine a spotlight on inspiring individuals working to study, protect, and communicate the Mekong’s many wonders. Printed materials such as coloring books, playing cards, calendars and posters have been used to communicate environmental topics in rural, technology-limited schools and villages. Through the use of diverse communication approaches, we hope to foster a deep sense of appreciation and value of the Mekong River and the many services it provides, especially among those living in the Mekong Basin.
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Communicating the Wonders of the Mekong to build support for conservation
- 1. Communicating the Wonders of the Mekong To Build Support for Conservation AFS / TWS Annual Meeting Reno, Nevada Sept 28 – Nov 3, 2019 Presenters: Erin Loury & Chheana Chhut
- 2. Challenges in Cambodia • Limited knowledge of all “Mekong Wonders” • Growing urban life disconnected from nature • Push for development accelerating exploitation and destruction of naturals resources
- 3. Why Does This Matter? • The Wonders of the Mekong are part of Cambodia’s natural and cultural heritage • Cambodians may lose some of these wonders/resources before fully understanding or appreciating them
- 4. Cambodian Demographics (2016) • 79% of the population is rural • 50% of the population has electricity • ~40% of the population is under 19 years old Source: The World Bank
- 5. Digital Communication Landscape in Cambodia (2019) • Cambodia’s population: 16.48 million • 1 in 2 people have a Facebook account in Cambodia! Source: Geeks in Cambodia
- 6. Communication Solutions 1. Engaging online stories 2. Printed communication materials 3. Personal stories from unique perspectives
- 7. Engaging the Online Generation • Facebook • 83K+ followers • Instagram • Twitter • Thmey Thmey (Cambodian news site) @mekongwonders
- 8. Printed materials for schools & villages • Coloring book • Playing cards • Calendar • Posters & Infographics
- 11. Personal Stories, Uniquely Told • Photo stories • Drone photography • Videos of local people • Conservation role models
- 12. Photo Stories • Professional and staff photographers created photo stories • Show connection between people and nature • Drone photos and video provide unique aerial perspective
- 13. Photo by Suthep Kritsanavarin
- 14. Photo by Suthep Kritsanavarin
- 15. Photos by Zeb Hogan and Chheana Chhut
- 16. Videos Tell Local Stories • Interviews show connection between local people and the Mekong River • Fish processor • Farmer who depends on Mekong flooding • Fisherman who released a giant barb alive
- 17. Mekong Conservation Heroes • Call for nominations for inspiring individuals in conservation • Storytelling training • Online profile • Bio • Blog posts • Video
- 18. Mekong Conservation Hero Profile
- 19. Benefits of Communication • Celebrate the uniqueness of Cambodia’s natural “wonders” that may be taken for granted • Foster pride in local role models and stories
- 20. Benefits of Communication • Encourage understanding of personal benefits derived from nature • Motivate a desire to protect nature
- 21. Thank You! Erin Loury erinloury@fisbhio.com Chheana Chhut chheana.lotus@gmail.com @mekongwonders
Editor's Notes
- Hi my name is Erin Loury and I’m the communications director at FISHBIO. One of my roles in Wonders of the Mekong has been to help with the project communications. And I’m presenting today with Chheana Chhut, who is based in Cambodia and is also very involved with the communication aspects. So we’ve been hearing all day about how the Mekong Basin is a place ofmany unique Wonders that ‘s also undergoing rapid change. So we’ll talk today about why we think communication is important.
- So here are some of the challenges that we face in Cambodia. One is that many people in Cambodia may be unaware about the full extent of these Mekong Wonders, or instead of seeing them as extraordinary, they may simply view them as ordinary, because they are part of their every day lives. Also, more people are moving to live in urban environments where they are becoming increasingly disconnected from nature. And finally a big push for development is accelerating the exploitation and destruction of natural resources. People may perceive of them as things to be used, rather than things to be celebrated or protected.
- Why does this matter? The Wonders of the Mekong
- So here is a little bit of a context about the people that we are trying to reach. Although the urban centers are growing, the vast majority of the population is rural. Only about half the population has electricity. Cambodia is often referred to as a young country. There was a baby boom after the Khmer Rouge genocide, and currently about 40% of the population is under 19 years old.
- What’s also fascinating is that Cambodia is a very digitally connected country, overwhelmingly on on Facebook. There are more than 8 million facebook users in Cambodia, and the country’s population is 16 million. So that means one in 2 people in Cambodia have a Facebook account. It seems like the 50% of the population that has electricity is using it to connect to Facebook. So this gives us some idea of where our audience is.
- So in this talk we’ll talk to you about some of our strategies or solutions that we’ve come up with to try to reach different audiences. This includes engaging online stories for the Facebook generation, and also some more traditional printed communication materials to reach the other half of the population. And one of our main strategies is to try to highlight personal stories from unique perspectives, and really emphasize the connection between people and nature.
- So when it coms to our online presence, we really focus our effort on Facebook. Where we have 83,000 followers. And we’ve really taken advantage of Facebook advertising to help us grow our following and promote our content. The nice thing about Cambodia is that by spending a few dollars, you can reach thousands of people. So here’s an example of a story we posted about a study one of our scientist did about the importance of molluscs in Tonle Sap Lake. We post the story in both English and Khmer, with the Khmer on top and note that says English below. Our priorty is trying to reach the Cambodian audience, but we want the post to work both locally and internationally. And we spent I think $5 to promote this post, so you can see that it reach 21,00 people, we got 2,000 reactions from people, 139 people sharing it – it’s possible to get some good engagement. We also post on Instagram and Twitter to a lesser extent. Our account name on all of these platforms is @mekongwonders, so you can follow along. And Chheana also writes for a Cambodian news site called Thmey Thmey, and we use some of those same stories on Facebook. Chheana maybe you can tell us more about that.
- Chheana is a graphic designer who has made some unique visual materials about for project. These help us reach our more rural audience, including schools and remote villages.
- One of the most successful materials has been the development of a coloring book about the fishes of the Mekong River. IT has the giant barb, which is Cambodia’s national fish on the front. And every time our team goes into villages, they bring the coloring book a long. Kids can see color illustrations about what the fish look like, and then express their own creativity. And they can learn facts about the fish too. And we’ve found that adults also get excited about wanting to read about the fish with their kids.
- Here’s an example of an infographic to talk about the historic Kingdom of Angkor.
- One of our strategies with our communication is to really highlight personal stories in a unique way to highlight the connection between people and the Mekong. We do that with photo stories, drone phogoraphy, videos of local people and finding conservation role models.
- We’ve worked with professional photogrpahers as well as our staff to create photo stories of local people to show their connection to nature. And Drone photos and video also provide a unique aerial perspective. This is showing an example of a fish trap on the Tonle Sap Lake.
- We worked with a Thai photographer Suthep Kritsanavarin, and here are some of his photos. This shows people drying fish near Tonle Sap Lake.
- This is a photo of a lotus farmer whose livelihood depend son nature.
- Here’s a photo of a fisherman’s daughter Zeb Hogan took in 2003, and a photo that Chheana took in 2017. We psoted these photos together to show how her family still has the same livelihood connected to fishing.
- Chheana has also been filming videos to interview local people and share their connection with the Mekong River.
- Another aspect of the project has been highlighting the work of local Cambodians who are inspiring work on the ground for conservation. We call this our Mekong Conservation Heroes program. We put out a call for nominations of inspiring individuals in conservation and this is our first class of six heroes. We did a storytelling trainig with them, where we taught them about telling stories, taking photos, and video. They