Local hands, global change. Working together towards policy change.
This project was created in collaboration with a new conservation organisation called Stampede International. The founder, Georgie Bradbury, was hoping to find new and disruptive ways to accelerate the impact of conservation efforts.
Mass mobilisation is the most effective way of enacting policy change and positively impact biodiversity
Humanity is causing the Earth’s 6th mass extinction - we have already wiped out over 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles in the last 50 years as a result of poaching, pollution and the destruction of habitats.
Policy change is one of the main driving forces behind the survival of biodiversity however wider awareness of biodiversity loss amongst the public is needed particularly within local communities. The reason for this is because mass mobilisation and movements have historically been very effective in pushing through policy change but a critical mass must be generated first. The question we asked ourselves was how might we empower people to take action, and in turn, create evidence that could affect policy change?
Defining our Modern day activists
We did extensive research into the world of conservation and spoke to experts at WWF, the UN and local NGOs in the UK and abroad. Once we identified mass mobilisation as a recurring theme of best practice, we pivoted our research focus onto modern day activism. Millennials and Gen Z were chosen as our target group based on their receptiveness and motivation to engage in biodiversity causes. We synthesised our findings into four user archetypes that we used when developing our concept.
Gen Z Activist Archetypes
Stampede is an online platform for multiple local biodiversity missions that aims to push for policy change. With clear calls for action, it offers users the opportunity to take real actions in their local area that collectively helps to amplify the voices of small NGOs. The completion of these actions are translated into evidence of measurable impact.
Stampede for Bees
We took our concept live, creating an exemplar mission to help bees in London. We created seed bomb packs that, if thrown into flower beds, would grow into wildflowers. These were distributed to 20 participants and within 2 days, 13 of our participants were prompted to engage in what was happening to the biodiversity in their local area and planted approximately 600 flowers all around the city of London. We used Instagram to drive engagement and estimate that at least 2000 people around the world saw our participants posts.
Stampede for Bees Prototype
Project Team: Bea Mandelstam, Pinja Piipponen, Saumya Singhal, Ruotong Guan