An Overview Of Our Solution
In May 2017, the Salqa Peru Twitter page (@SalqaPeru) was created, with the message “Know to love. Want to protect. Spreading the biodiversity of Peru”. Since then, this page has tweeted daily on issues of biodiversity conservation, emblematic species, illegal wildlife trafficking, and retweets related news from trusted sites. Likewise, a greeting is sent for its anniversary to each protected natural area of Peru, highlighting the peculiarities of each area. Likewise, the holidays indicated in the National Environmental Calendar are remembered.
Salqa Peru's mission is to disseminate information, and that it becomes knowledge, of the wealth with which we have been blessed, and is one more reason for pride of Peruvians. Our varied gastronomy is based on our biodiversity.
- Population Impacted: 1.55 million people
- Continent: South America
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Context Analysis
In the publication How much do we Peruvians know about biodiversity? of the Ministry of the Environment, through the General Directorate of Biological Diversity, only a third of those surveyed have ever heard the word biodiversity. The work process consisted of 1700 surveys carried out, the Sample: men and women between 18-70 years of age.
According to the page of the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics, the Population of electoral age from 18 to 70 years is, for the year 2021, 21,607,899 people. of which, 66% do not know the term biodiversity, that is, 14,261,213 people.
In 2007, the Parque de Las Leyendas zoo in Lima conducted a survey among the attending public. The questions were simple: What animal did he come to see? What animal would you like to see? What animals can you name? The majority responses were exotic animals: giraffe, lion, tiger, hippos. Very few mentioned that they came to see the condor, vicuñas, Tumbes crocodile, etc. This survey indicated the ignorance of the attending public about the native fauna of Peru. Since then, little has changed.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in its Article 26 “Everyone has the right to education. Education must be free, at least as far as elementary and fundamental instruction is concerned. Elementary instruction will be compulsory. “.
The Political Constitution of Peru, in its Article 68: "The State is obliged to promote the conservation of biological diversity and protected natural areas."
According to the Comenzando de Cero portal, Twitter, for issues of content dissemination, virality, and as a marketing tool, is much more useful than other social networks. By limiting the number of characters in your content messages, it's easier to view on mobile devices. The number of people you can reach on Facebook depends on how many friends you have, on Twitter you can reach more people in less time
Describe the technical solution you wanted the target audience to adopt
The technical solution is information. It is ignorance about, for example, that the illegal trafficking of fauna and flora is a crime, it is not known to the majority. The easy access to acquiring wildlife allows many people to buy these animals as pets, and many others buy them, with the intention of saving them, to later deliver them to a Zoo.
Salqa Peru's slogan is “Know to love. Want to protect”, if the wealth of biodiversity that our country has, the endemic species present in our territory is unknown, we will not feel part of us, the sense of belonging to these resources. Only if we feel them ours, will a feeling of respect for what we would consider our own emerge. Then we would protect what is ours.
Describe your behavioral intervention.
The problem of illegal trafficking of species has cities as its final market. Research on wildlife trafficking at the national level indicates that more than 80% of visible traffic is concentrated in the markets of Lima, Tumbes, Loreto and Ucayali (Urban perception of the use and trade of live wild animals. Community participation, WCS, 2016).
Some initiatives to combat illegal wildlife trafficking, such as the "Your house is not my home" campaign launched by SERFOR in 2013 and the "DenunciaFauna" campaign carried out by Neotropical Primate Conservation - NPC through social networks, are oriented to promote citizen participation at the urban level, discouraging the wildlife trade or encouraging it to be denounced. However, they have a limited scope due to their concentration in Lima and social networks (Urban perception on the use and trade of live wild animals. Community participation, WCS, 2016).
Social networks work better where there is better internet connectivity, and it is precisely the inhabitants of cities who demand wildlife, mainly as pets. It is precisely the target audience to provide them with the information, not only regular buyers of wildlife, but also people who refuse to purchase this protected fauna, for whatever reasons they have, so that they clarify the reasons why they should reject illegal trafficking. , and protect wild animals.
Behavioral Levers Utilized
As needed, please explain how you utilized the lever(s) in more detail.
The intervention is carried out through tweets that are published daily. Currently, 5 publications are made with fragments of 5 books or web pages on environmental issues. It is known that these cannot exceed 280 characters, which facilitates reading. The paragraphs are usually edited so that they can be published, always placing the reference (attached photo of the book cover).
Additionally, on each anniversary of one of the protected natural areas of national, regional and private administration, a commemorative greeting is sent, highlighting the particularities of each area. The holidays indicated in the national environmental calendar are also remembered.
The search for information for daily publications requires time and effort, synthesizing a relevant paragraph of a book, 280 characters, with easy-to-understand information, as well as constant reading of publications, with similar themes, takes some time.
Describe your implementation
The target market is Twitter users. According to the Branch website publication, Statistics of the digital situation of Peru in 2020-2021, 1.55 million Peruvians can be reached via advertising campaigns, 5.9% of the active population in social networks over 13 years of age. Twitter increased this 2021 by 6.9% registering 100 thousand Peruvians as new users. Its audience is made up of 39.1% women and 60.9% men.
Salqa Peru currently has 704 followers, and the goal is to get more. Increasing the number of daily tweets to a minimum of 15, keeping the information format easy to read, keeping mentions of holidays according to the national environmental calendar, greetings for the anniversary of the country's natural protected areas, and retweeting of relevant information.
The information published comes from official pages, such as the SINIA library, where in addition to publishing the tweet, the cover of the publication is attached, with the web address, where the publication is located.
The key to providing information is to make the reader aware, so that they are not indifferent to the illegal trafficking of wildlife, but instead denounce it, having more elements to understand that this illegal activity seriously affects the conservation of species. In addition, the issues of protection of natural habitats and the effects if they are damaged.
This will be a process that, from this Twitter page, aims to transform information into knowledge.
Describe the leadership for your solution. Who is leading the implementation?
Only my person leads this effort to search and edit relevant information on environmental issues. This project requires even more dedicated time, since its goal is to increase the number of daily tweets to a minimum of 15, with what this entails.
The dedication that I give to this effort is done with the intention of disseminating our varied biodiversity, and every Peruvian has the right to know it and the duty to protect it.
Share some of the key partners or stakeholders engaged in your solution development and implementation.
Like any social network, Twitter is based on the tweets that one receives from the pages followed, but much more by the followers, since there is a responsibility for quality publications, in recognition of them, who will read them.
Among the followers of Salqa Peru are Fundación Terra (@fundterra), Mariano Castro SM (@marianocastro), E. Angulo Pratolongo (@matzerath), Aves Urbanas de Lima (@AvesUrbanasLima), Jessica Amanzo (@JessicaAmanzo), Gabriel Quijandría (@GQuijandriaA), Peruvian Institute of Law and Environment (@idamperu), OSINFOR (@OsinforPeru), CIFOR Latin America (@CIFOR_bosques), Antarctica.cl (@Antarcticacl), CI Peru (@cienperu), Oceana Peru (@Oceana_Peru ), Gestión Ambiental PJ (@Ambiental_PJ), IDLADS Institute (@IDLADS), Jorge Bruce (@jotabruce), Felipe Rubio Torgler (@FRubioTorgler), Mongabay Latam (@MongabayLatam), Gisella Orjeda (@gorjeda), Richard Bernabe (@ bernabephoto), Actualidad Ambiental (@actualidadspda), WWF Colombia (@WWFColombia), Region Editions (@EDICIONESREGION), Round Table 🇵🇪 (@MCLCP_NACIONAL), Madre de Dios News (@regionmadredios), Lorena Gómez Centeno (@lorenabelixa ), Playeras del Perú (@playerasdelperu), MOCICC 🇵🇪 (@mociccperu), Paul Maquet (@rumillaqta), ProPurús Association (@ProPurus), Practical Action in Latin America (@PA_LatinAmerica), CEDIA 🇵🇪 (@CediaPeru), Gaceta Ucayalina (@GacetaUcayalina), Pierre-Yves Legrand (@PYL_Nantes), César A. Ipenza (@cipenza), Ulrich Janse van Vuuren (@UlrichJvV), Rumbos Magazine (@RumbosdelPeru), ADNecoambiental (@ADNecoambiental), The CLEO Institute (@CLEOInstitute), among others.
Who adopted the desired behavior(s) and to what degree? Include an explanation of how you measured a change in behavior.
I would like to say that thanks to Salqa Peru's publications, the number of animals that were illegally trafficked was reduced, but this is a task that is not only about providing information.
Recently, the Congress of the Republic unanimously approved a law that incorporates wildlife trafficking as an offense of organized crime. This opens the possibility of investigating, prosecuting and convicting with more sophisticated and harsh tools.
As a society, it is up to us to know the richness in biodiversity that Peru has.
How did you impact the environment (biodiversity conservation, ecosystems, etc.)? Please be specific and include measurement methodology where relevant.
Salqa Peru's publications include issues of conservation of natural habitats, and how their degradation can affect flora and fauna, as well as nearby populations. It has been repeatedly published about the effects of informal mining, which is one of the main causes of contamination of water sources.
How has your solution impacted equity challenges (including race, ethnicity, social class/income, indigenous communities, or others)?
Twitter posts do not distinguish the gender of the reading public, although According to the Branch web publication, Statistics on the digital situation of Peru in 2020-2021, Twitter users are made up of 39.1% women and 60.9 % men.
What were some sustainable development co-benefits?
Publishing, through Twitter, successful experiences of sustainable activities, provides ideas to be applied in each region. For example, the revaluation of native crops, on a small scale, but for which the public in the cities is willing to pay extra for a product of organic origin.
Sustainability: Describe the economic sustainability of your solution.
This project requires many hours to search for relevant information, easy to understand, synthesize it for publication. To search for reliable information, books are sought that can be freely downloaded from official pages, SINIA (National Environmental Information System), MINAM, the SERNANP library, etc.
The chosen books must be read, and the most relevant, easily understandable paragraphs are published, and as indicated above, with the photo of the book cover and the web address where it can be found.
The goal is to post 15 tweets a day, which requires more time spent searching for information. Financing is necessary so that the project is not frustrated.
Return on investment: How much did it cost to implement these activities? How do your results above compare to this investment?
By increasing the number of daily tweets, naturally, the number of followers will increase, and consequently, the number of readers. That every day one more Peruvian understands that we live in a megadiverse country, which must protect the native flora and fauna, the natural areas, the scenic beauty, will be the best reward for this effort called Salqa Peru.
How could we successfully replicate this solution in Latin America?
Social networks have no limits, only those of connectivity. The scope of the networks is national and global. It has followers in Spain, the United States and other countries.
Salqa Peru's commitment is to publish 15 tweets a day, at an average rate of 150 soles, for all the publications in one day, including the anniversary greetings of the Natural Protected Areas and the festive dates of the MINAM's National Environmental Calendar. It is published 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
The technological requirements for this project are a device with internet access. Currently, an i7 Laptop is used, with internet access, with appropriate speed to upload the information.