Communicating the Value of Biodiversity

Duration: Self-paced
Estimated effort: 30-45 minutes/lesson
Languages: English, French, Spanish
 Requirements: Internet connection
 Partners: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), NBSAP Forum, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and Rare

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UNDP, the NBSAP Forum, the CBD Secretariat, and Rare are excited to offer you a self-paced course in Communicating the Value of Biodiversity! As we face accelerating biodiversity and climate change crises, it is critical to effectively communicate the importance of nature for humanity and for the health of the planet. This course is designed to help people who are not experts in communication to integrate communication into their work. 

This course consists of five lessons. Each lesson has been written to stand alone so that you can select the lessons most applicable to your work. For best results, you should follow the lessons in chronological order. 

• Lesson 1: How to inform and build awareness focuses on finding your audience, gaining its attention and gauging its response.
• Lesson 2: How to engage and advocate around biodiversity issues introduces you to strategies for getting people excited and motivated around biodiversity.
• Lesson 3: How to collaborate on biodiversity conservation helps you to identify collaborators and provides you with strategies for collaborating and building a network.
• Lesson 4: Creating an effective biodiversity communication plan provides a step by step guide for communicating effectively about biodiversity.
• Lesson 5: Power dynamics to consider in biodiversity communications explores how you can navigate differences in power or perception when designing effective communications.

Learning objectives

By the time the course is completed, you will be able to:

• Frame issues so your audience understands them.
• Engage with stakeholders using the appropriate channels.
• Promote behaviour change through engaging effectively with different stakeholder groups
• Identify collaborators and build a network
• Create an effective biodiversity communication plan
• Understand power dynamics involved in biodiversity conservation

Course completion requirements

To receive the certificate of course completion, participants must complete:

• Five online lessons
• The course survey