078 - Promoting conservation through behaviour-centred solutions
078 - Promoting conservation through behaviour-centred solutions
Latest version in this language:Version for electronic vote | Published on: 01 Sep 2020
RECOGNISING the severe threats facing global biodiversity and ecosystems, as stated in the 2019 Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Global Assessment Report and Global Biodiversity Outlook 4 (GBO-4), and that transformative change in our present patterns of production and consumption is required to end biodiversity loss;
RECALLING Aichi Biodiversity Target 1 that “by 2020, people are aware of the values of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably”;
PROPOSING that awareness itself is not enough for the change necessary to meet global conservation targets;
RECOGNISING that advances in the field of behavioural science have changed our understanding of human decision making and have revealed strategies that can aid in designing effective conservation solutions and policies;
RECALLING that GBO-4 also states that social sciences, including our knowledge of social and cultural drivers, can accelerate progress to tackling the underlying causes of biodiversity loss;
NOTING that many development and health organisations have used behavioural science, social marketing, and design thinking to achieve positive change;
IDENTIFYING behaviour-centred design (BCD) as an approach to behaviour change that integrates knowledge from the behavioural sciences (social psychology, cognitive science, anthropology) with design thinking methodology to identify the target audience(s) and behaviour(s) we must address; to understand motivations, barriers and biases; to generate targeted solutions to those environmental challenges; and to test those solutions with the intended audience before scaling up;
WELCOMING BCD as an expanded tool for conservation efforts;
ACKNOWLEDGING the influence of cultural values and beliefs on behaviour and the need for sensitivity, ethics and integrity in promoting change;
HIGHLIGHTING the critical role that Members play to ensure that solutions using BCD are in all conservation efforts, including when they work with natural-resource users, with corporations/supply chains, with consumers demanding unsustainable products, and with civic/public institutions; and
NOTING specifically the role that zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens and museums have in reaching wide audiences (more than one billion visitors annually), as well as the critical role of in situ conservation programmes, and the influence these experiences have in motivating action for biodiversity;
The IUCN World Conservation Congress, at its session in Marseille, France:
1. CALLS ON the Director General to work closely with Members to employ BCD within conservation initiatives and planning;
2. URGES Members to address conservation as a behavioural challenge and to incorporate action alongside raising awareness;
3. REQUESTS that post-2020 goals for biodiversity conservation include measurable targets on behaviour change involving citizens, institutions (governmental and non-governmental) and businesses;
4. URGES governments to embed conservation action and behaviour change within outreach and education programmes, such as the national educational curriculum, on a par with climate change, and to fund such initiatives, building on Resolution 6.084 Environmental education and how to naturalise the spaces in educational centres for healthy development and a better childhood connection with nature (Hawai‘i, 2016);
5. REQUESTS that Members incorporate BCD into programmes that:
a. champion holistic campaigns that include behaviourally-informed change communications, advocacy and citizen engagement efforts aimed at the wider public in increasingly urban-based societies, to engage consumers and drive change through demand (e.g. plastics, palm oil, endangered wildlife), utilising emotional appeals, social incentives, behavioural economics and choice architecture – such as featuring iconic species to capture the public imagination;
b. engage with local resource users, the private sector producers, supply chains and civic/public leaders as a means of driving sustainable practices;
c. develop and enforce policies that protect biodiversity and use resources sustainably;
d. inspire all citizens, including a younger generation, to mobilise and adopt sustainable lifestyles; and
e. plan, manage, interpret and promote protected areas and historic sites; and
6. CALLS ON Members to share research that provides evidence-based lessons to facilitate growth across this field.