Tatiana Riddle of Guy, Ark. spent eight months completing her University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service final Capstone project with the Division of International Conservation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The Division of International Conservation is responsible for facilitating grants and technical support to environmental conservation programs worldwide. Riddle’s efforts will contribute to the Division of International Conservation’s work by helping to improve the connection between legislators and environmental conservation.
Riddle developed a “lessons learned” guide to engage legislators in environmental conservation efforts. This is the first guide that helps to inform the establishment and development of mechanisms that engage legislators in environmental conservation. Often, natural resource management is not a legislator’s primary concern; legislators are focused more on issues such as managing economic crises or responding to daily constituent needs. Conversely, many environmental conservation organizations do not include legislators as one of their target audiences.
To collect the lessons learned, Riddle conducted interviews with individuals involved in engaging legislators in environmental conservation. Regions highlighted in the lessons learned guide include: Southeast Asia (Borneo, Indonesia), Sub-Saharan Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia), and Central and Latin America (Brazil, Colombia, Mexico). Riddle looked at various types of mechanisms including caucuses, networks, radio programs, and transdisciplinary groups.
“The lessons learned from this project are very valuable as they hit key points on planning, communications, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) that will be useful to USFWS and partners when considering support for conservation caucuses and engagement with legislators from around the world,” said Dirck Byler, Acting Africa Branch Chief of the USFWS Division of International Conservation.
Key lessons learned include: 1) Neutrality and lack of perception as lobbyists is key to successfully engaging with legislators on environmental issues, 2) In order to maintain continued legislator awareness and attention, providing consistent, high-quality information is vital, and, 3) working with legislators, either by building a caucus or simply disseminating information, takes an extraordinary amount of time and resources.
This lessons learned guide will be invaluable to future initiatives that work to inform and involve legislators in environmental conservation. With an increasing need to enact well-informed public policy, the connection between legislators and environmental conservation efforts is more vital than ever.
To complete this project, Riddle utilized relationships that she developed over the last few years. Riddle has been an intern in the Division of International Conservation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since May 2012. In 2014, she spent three months in Indonesia working on the Aceh Sustainable Development Caucus.
The Capstone Project is the third of three major field projects in the Clinton School curriculum. Riddle will graduate May 2015 after defending her capstone project to Clinton School faculty.
About the Division of International Conservation (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
The Division of International Conservation (DIC) is part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Division of International Conservation is a governmental organization that collaborates with partners worldwide to conserve biodiversity for future generations by facilitating financial and technical support to environmental conservation projects and building the capacity of emerging wildlife conservationists.
More information about the Division of International Conservation is available at www.fws.gov/international.
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