Bugs and Society II: Testing Two Communication Strategies for Public Engagement in the Azores Isabel R

Bugs and Society II: Testing Two Communication Strategies for Public Engagement in the Azores Isabel R. Amorim, Ana Moura Arroz, Rita São Marcos, Paulo A. V. Borges and Rosalina Gabriel Abstract Two initiatives to raise biodiversity awareness towards Azorean endemic species, an outdoor exhibition Açorianos há milhões de anos (Azoreans for millions of years) and a web contest to name insects Chama-lhe Nomes! (Pick a Name!), are presented in this chapter. Both communicational strategies targeted non-traditional audiences, relied on the Portuguese and Azorean cultural identity and on anthropic verisimilitude of situations involving insects. The context, principles, assumptions and multidisciplinary approach involved in the development of the public awareness activities were presented in detail in chapter “Bugs and Society I: Raising Awareness About Endemic Biodiversity”. Apart from having symbolically occupied the urban public domain, the outdoor exhibition triggered positive reactions in more than three-quarters of the observers, prompting them to seek more information about the insects, to want to see them alive, to photograph them, etc. On the other hand, the web contest attributed common names to 12 endemic species of insects and motivated over one hundred people to carefully consider their photos and descriptions, engaging in sheer naturalistic pleasure. Less favourable were the post-observation Isabel R. Amorim and Ana Moura Arroz—contributed equally to this work. I.R. Amorim (&) Á P.A.V. Borges Á R. Gabriel Departamento de Ciências Agrárias, cE3c—Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes/Azorean Biodiversity Group and Universidade dos Açores, 9700-042 Angra do Heroísmo, Açores, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] A.M. Arroz (&) Á R. São Marcos Departamento de Ciências da Educação, cE3c—Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes/Azorean Biodiversity Group and Universidade dos Açores, 9700-042 Angra do Heroísmo, Açores, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 125 P. Castro et al. (eds.), Biodiversity and Education for Sustainable Development, World Sustainability Series, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-32318-3_9 126 I.R. Amorim et al. recognition indicators of urban exposure, since only less than one-third of the interviewees correctly identified the insect’ group represented on the banner or could place the origin of the animal. Nevertheless, the means assigned to the evaluation of the intervention were not enough to undertake a full assessment of the impacts produced in the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of viewers and users. Still, the resonance in the media was considerable, in terms of the number of news stories and the diversity of vehicles and audiences reached at regional (outdoor exhibition) and national levels (web contest). Communication devices like the ones presented are expected to raise biodiversity awareness and empower people regarding its preservation in the Azores. Moreover, the critical analysis of these initiatives is expected to provide guidelines that maximise the transferability of communication strategies to other social settings. 1 Introductory Note Biodiversity loss is one of the most neglected environmental risks, with a low level of priority among public concern (Cardinale et al. 2012). Thus, in order to raise awareness tothe problem ofendemicbiodiversity disappearance,this issuewas framed inthe light of risk governance (Arroz et al. 2016, this book), using insects from the Azores, the taxonomic group with the highest number of endemic species in the archipelago. This chapter presents two of the activities that were part of the Azorean intervention Bugs and Society, and discusses their results. The activities differed con- siderably, namely on the: (i) degree of involvement of the target population—to inform versus to involve; (ii) audiences—city dwellers versus Facebook users; (iii) proposed tasks—to appreciate/contemplate versus naming insects; and (iv) grammars used—outdoor banners vs. an online contest. However, the same principles and purposes underlie both activities, which also rely on immaterial values that characterise the Portuguese/Azorean identity as a strategic option to bridge the gap between insects and humans. The specific goals of this work were to: (i) design communicational devices to promote endemic biodiversity, framed by indigenous ethnoenthomology and by the Azorean and Portuguese core identities; (ii) present the process and evaluate the results of two communication activities in mainstreaming biodiversity; and (iii) provide guidelines about the message design, the regulation and the evaluation of communication strategies in order to maximise its transferability to other social contexts. 2 Raising Public Awareness: The Exhibition Açorianos há Milhões de Anos—Azoreans for Millions of Years 2.1 Communication Goals and Strategies To raise public awareness regarding conservation biodiversity, an urban outdoor exhibition was conceived to catch city dwellers’ attention while going about their Bugs and Society II: Testing Two Communication … 127 daily activities. Because insects represent a big portion of the species that can only be found in the Azores, but are among islanders least favourite organisms (Gabriel et al. 2007, 2009, 2012a,b), endemic insects were the protagonists of this initiative. Besides providing accurate scientific information on the particular species, the exhibition sought to defy the dominant representations about insects in order to: – draw attention to the existence of species that can only be found in the Azores; – raise awareness among local citizens for the need to protect endemic species; and – bring these species to the city, giving the general population a chance to see them, as these insects are difficult to observe in their natural habitat. This initiative aimed to spark curiosity, promote interest and incite casual con- versations, bringing insects into the public arena, thus facilitating an invisible (latent) participation of the people (sensu Pasquino’s system of political participation, 2002). The communication strategy draws on previous research on the perspectives of Azoreans on insects (Gabriel et al. 2007, 2009, 2012b). Those studies revealed that people were unaware of the fact that several of the species that exist in the archipelago can only be found there, felt aversion (dislike) towards insects because they are disgusting,anuisance, scary, useless, ugly and irrelevant, and were not very concerned about insect conservation. To deconstruct this negative public opinion on insects, several team brain- storming meetings were held in order to prepare a briefing for communication designers to produce the copy for this specific initiative (Box 1), bearing in mind that the purpose, the function and the legitimation criteria of communicating science are unlike the ones of making science (Dahlstrom 2014). Box 1: Excerpt of the designers briefing describing positive attributes of the selected insect species Key ideas to convey concerning the selected Azorean endemic insect species: 1. They are unique and only exist in the Azores; 2. They are special, all having important ecosystem functions (insects are useful): a. Pollination—guarantee the survival of most plant species, assuring seed and fruit production; b. Regulation of natural populations—by feeding on other organisms (predation and/or herbivory) insects control those populations, pre- venting them from attaining pest status (e.g., other insects, other groups of arthropods, plants); c. Forest structure—insects feed on living and dead plants, shaping the landscape; d. Decomposition and nutrient cycling—insects are responsible for fast cycling of nutrients, particularly in forest ecosystems; without them, a huge amount of nutrients would remain unavailable for other organisms; e. Food source—many other animals feed on insects. 128 I.R. Amorim et al. 3. They are true Azoreans, they were on the islands long before Portuguese settlers arrived in the 15th century: they have been around for millions of years; 4. They are “under siege” on the islands and their existence depends on the conservation of their natural habitats (native Azorean forest), which cur- rently is reduced to about 2.5 % of its original area. Extinction is forever; once they disappear from the Azores, unique biological diversity has been definitely erased from Earth; 5. They may and should be celebrated for their eccentric and idiosyncratic beauty; 6. They are not a threat! These insects are not dangerous, not poisonous, not disease vectors and would not invade our homes; conversely, their existence is threatened by human-mediated habitat destruction; 7. They are also animals. When compared to other animals (e.g., birds, mammals) insects attract very little attention and are less valued; insects are the aesthetically challenged Mother Nature’s “ugly ducklings”! The operationalised strategy (Table 1) involved, in terms of iconic and symbolic forms of representation, the creation of hyper-realistic depictions of endemic insects, exploiting the capability of extreme macrophotography, in order to make unavoidably visible what is naturally tiny and socially ignored. The extreme magnification revealed traits in a larger than life format, otherwise impossible to see with the naked eye. The change of scale resonated, along the lines of modern expressionism, with ugliness coming from the depth of what is alien to human experience, disgusting, unsettling…

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