Nature and Environment Education - COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN

The slogan

“NOS TA BIBA DI NATURALESA” (nature is our livelihood) is the slogan for all communication concerning nature and environmental issues on Bonaire. Until the launch of this campaign, there was no cohesion between the informative campaigns on, for instance, protected species like the Lora (endemic parrot) and the sea turtles or the clean ups. All campaigns are now united under the “umbrella” of “Nos ta biba di Naturalesa,” which results in a synergy (1+1=3) and leads to a better cohesion in communication. This slogan is used to inform the people that nature conservation is essential for their daily bread and butter.

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The logo

The logo shows in the center the human, who depends so much on nature, but also has such a huge influence on nature. The human is surrounded by symbols inspired by cave drawings made by our ancestors, the Indians. These symbolize the four elements: fire (the sun), water (the fish), air (the flamingo) and land (the cactus). The human seems in tune with the four elements (nature) surrounding him; this also refers to our objective.

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Role of communication

Communication can contribute to an improved awareness and attitude, when done systematically, long term (3-5 years), in a positive tone of voice and integrated, since all elements (nature, tourism, economy and environment) are entwined.

A very conscious choice was made to not limit the communication instruments to one language, but instead to use both the most commonly used ones, Papiamento and Dutch. This is because, although there is a big group of people who speak both languages, there is also a substantial group fluent in only one of these languages. Communicating in just one language would decrease the reach of our message and information.

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The communication objective

The communication objective is to achieve, within a period of 3 to 5 years, imparting knowledge and influencing attitude of 70% of our target group (the general public of Bonaire older than 18 years) so they will want to strive for a sustainable development of Bonaire which respects and protects nature and the environment.

So how are we going to reach this very ambitious objective? Our strategy is to be informative on two levels: informing about the value of nature and how to protect it, and informing on national and international policy. All this will be done in a positive tone of voice. Emotional appeal is also important, for instance appealing to the identity and values of the people and using the sweetness of certain species like the turtle to touch peoples’ hearts and emotions. Stimulating the public to participate in this campaign and thereby revive collective responsibility is important. So is the support of our partners and sponsors. This will result in synergy (1 + 1 = 3) so this campaign will succeed as it deserves to!

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The message

The message is that we are living on a unique island, and Bonaire’s nature is our major product. It offers us welfare and prosperity, so we must take care of nature, our green engine, so we will benefit from it now and our children will have a future.

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The communication instruments

The communication instruments that will be used vary greatly.
The weekly columns and interviews in several local newspapers, our campaign paper the “MAKUBEKÈN” and frequent press releases in various media are, next to our bumper stickers, posters and banners, the most important instruments at this moment. A professional survey has been done in cooperation with the Central Bureau of Statistics in which 250 residents of Bonaire were interviewed in December 2005. This was to determine the current knowledge and perception of the general public, before the launch of this campaign started on January 19th 2006. Two more inquiries will follow over time, to determine if we are heading in the right direction and achieving our objective. STINAPA and one of our major sponsors use on outgoing mail Post stamps with the campaign logo and slogan. In addition to all this we will organize contests and various events and run “radio–flashes”of 90 seconds on several local radio stations. These “radio–flashes” will voice the questions the general public has on nature and environmental issues.

The campaign paper is called “MAKUBEKÈN”. This name refers to the person who, going door to door, used to announce the latest news to the people. With the invention of radio and television, this job disappeared.  Well the “MAKUBEKÈN” is back in Bonaire. This partly color and partly black & white paper, containing 12 pages, appears quarterly and is distributed free of charge to every household and company on Bonaire. It contains mainly informative articles related to nature and the environment, but also news, advice and information from our sponsors and partners. By offering this interesting mix, and keeping the articles positive and accompanied by nice pictures, the chances increase that the people will read the information we offer them.

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The sponsors

The main sponsor of the campaign is the World Wildlife Fund For Nature (WWF) in the Netherlands. In addition we are very proud that several local businesses had enough faith in our campaign to decide to become one of our sponsors: Carib Inn, Maduro & Curiel’s Bank (Bonaire) N.V., Digicel, Selibon, Telbo, RBTT Bank, BOPEC, Tourist Corporation Bonaire and Harbour Village.

Besides the sponsors, STINAPA can count on the support of several partners: the government of Bonaire, Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire (STCB), Fundashon Tene Boneiru Limpi (FTBL), Plataforma Rincon, Fundashon Salba nos Lora (FSL), Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance (DCNA) and Stichting Dierenasiel.

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