CIFOR’s Climate Change Communications: Communicating Science for Impact Imogen Badgery-Parker, Outreach Manager
Aug 23, 2014
CIFOR’s Climate Change Communications:
Communicating Science for Impact
Imogen Badgery-Parker, Outreach Manager
Goal
Build, inform and connect a knowledge-sharing community of stakeholders around tropical forests and landscapes to produce impact
Objectives
Maintain the role of forest and landscapes high on the political agenda
Provide impact pathways for CIFOR’s research to key policymakers and stakeholders
Position tropical forests and landscapes in the broader development agenda, and global processes
Continue to increase downloads, citations and begin to capture evidence of impact
Contribute to CGIAR through evidence-based communication connected with CGIAR Research Programs (CRP-FTA, CCAFS)
Climate change in the communications
program >40% of communications activities are related to climate change
Climate change communications are embedded in larger communications
program, with four intertwined strands:
• Digital program with global reach
• Traditional formats with repurposing of materials
• Events at various scales
• Targeted, context-specific engagement
Extreme -- Science Communication,
simply inform policymakers (old model)
Informative Advocacy
① injects scientific realities into
information that decision-makers use in
formulating policy
② gathers feedback from policymakers on
the information they need
Extreme -- Prescriptive Advocacy uses
scientist’s position to push for a policy
action
Inform vs. Advocate
Existing web-based communications platforms
• Forests and Climate Change website • CIFOR & CGIAR Corporate website • REDD-I • Forest News (blog) • CRP-FTA website • CIFOR TV, Slideshare • Facebook, Twitter, Google+ • Google News • CIFOR eNewsletter
Forests & Climate Change:
Revamp of knowledge hub
Move to non-branded websites
to attract more users
Original reporting conferences
& the field; debate & analysis
builds knowledge sharing
Launched as news site for
COP19 to build audience
(>300% increase in hits)
Solutions-focused journalism
Increased focus on community
building and partnerships
www.ForestsClimateChange.org
Twitter: @ForestsCC
Training and support in
anticipation of FORDA taking over
site maintenance, mid 2014
Model for other Ministries,
Cameroon, Vietnam, … .
REDD-Indonesia
www.redd-indonesia.org
Forests News blog
• 27% increase year-over-
year, reaching 500k pages
viewed annually
• 90 stories published
since 1 January (nearly all
translated)
• 16 scientist authored blogs
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
70,000
May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr
Monthly pageviews
2012-2013
2013-2014
27% GLF
340
440
540
640
740
840
07-Jun 27-Jun 17-Jul 06-Aug 26-Aug 15-Sep
Before the blog: 3 per day
Since then: 7 per day
During 3 days after the blog:
35 per day
Downloads
The power of the blog
A paper published in the journal Forests (18 Mar 11)
A blog article about this paper on CIFOR website
(16 Aug 11)
“We find that links to scholarly articles in blogs lead to substantial jumps in the likelihood of them being downloaded.” McKenzie, University of Chicago, 2014
“About 13 percent of policy reports were downloaded at least 250 times while more than 31 percent of policy reports are never downloaded. Almost 87 percent of policy reports were never cited …” Which World Bank Reports Are Widely Read?, 2014
Interest continues to grow
85% increase in Facebook likes From 8,193 in April 2013 to 15,127 in April 2014
78% increase in Twitter followers From 9,843 in April 2013 to 17,534 in April 2014
77% increase in YouTube views From 120,033 in April 2013 to 212,375 in April 2014
680% increase in Flickr views From 348,257 in April 2013 to 2.7 million in April 2014
60% increase in SlideShare downloads From 3,048 in April 2013 to 4,861 in April 2014
Monthly News Update
• Emailed to 31,000 subscribers, plus IISD’s Forest-L Listserve (16,000 subscibers)
PowerPoints posted on SlideShare
SlideShare averaging
10,000 views per month
Multiple languages:
English, French,
Spanish, Indonesian,
Portuguese
Top-viewed
presentations have
5000+ views each
Climate change factsheets
Small workshops
Haze, Fire and Landscapes Workshop, Bogor,
January
REDD+ workshop, Ougadougou, April
Involvement in/alongside international events
SBSTA, Bonn, June: Mangroves side event, panelist
on TEM, observer in SWG, forests & climate change
community building, JMA policy brief
GCF, Brazil, August: Presentations, publication
launch
UGA, NY, September: Technical workshop, CGIAR
Development Dialogues
COP20, Lima, Dec.: Side events, MINAM
partnership
Major events
Forests Asia Summit, Jakarta, May
Events
Forests Asia Summit
Themes included “Climate change and low-emissions development on the ground” Keynote speeches by:
Chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Environment Minister of Peru/COP20 President
Other themes included climate change-related topics
2,200 participants attended, more than 6,000 viewers watched live online, 3.45 million Twitter users reached + 4.9 million through SBY’s account
Media partnerships with major groups in Indonesia: audience of >30 million
Delegations from all Southeast Asian countries attended, including the President of Indonesia and 12 government ministers
Bilateral meetings between Ministers and Dr. Pachauri, IPCC VIP Lunch ‘Road to COP20’ hosted by Peru Environment Minister/COP20 President
with ASEAN Ministers
Capacity building: Youth session, Journalist training, Social media bootcamp
2014 Global Landscapes Forum
Climate Deal
Green Economy SDGs
Global Landscapes
Forum
• Builds on success in Warsaw and landscapes.org
• Timely focus on Sustainable Development Goals, climate change agenda (Kyoto protocol successor), green economy
• Climate change to be a cross-cutting theme
Regional
engagement
Climate Change Communications Focal Point works with
Regional Communications Coordinators and Senior Policy
Advisor for engagement with national and international policy
Latin America Comms
Coordinator
Africa Comms
Coordinator
Asia Comms
Coordinator
Climate Change Communications Focal Point
Senior Policy
Advisor - UNFCCC
Thank you