Seminar attendees gathered on Friday, November 15th at the Argonaut Rowing Club in Toronto. Words of welcome were delivered by Michael Rosen, President of Tree Canada, followed by a heartening talk from Stephen Scharper. Scharper and his wife Hilary are defendants in an ongoing legal battle involving boundary trees.
The Scharpers’ story inspired our group and we were eager to hear from Dr. McKenzie-Mohr about how organizations can better involve the public in urban forestry issues. McKenzie-Mohr is the author of a book entitled Fostering Sustainable Behaviour , which outlines the system of “community-based social marketing” he created as a means to effectively engage citizens in environmental issues.
In the preface to his book, he writes:
“Community-based social marketing draws heavily on research in social psychology, which indicates that initiatives to promote behavior change are often most effective when they are carried out at the community level and involve direct contact with people.”
During the seminar, McKenzie-Mohr guided us through the main facets of his approach and rationalized why inundating the public with too much information and relying on “economic self-interest” as a motivator for behaviour change does not work. We came to learn effective ways to target an audience, extract information, develop a plan for change, recognize the barriers and have the greatest impact. Needless to say, we covered a lot of ground!
As someone involved in sustainability programming, the seminar made me want to delve deeper into the approach. McKenzie-Mohr developed a handy website to assist individuals and organizations who are interested in driving sustainable behaviours.
After the seminar, it was time to explore the great outdoors! The OUFC Conference concluded with an information-packed tree tour, which reminded us of the beauty and functionality of our urban forest. It also provided a welcome opportunity to reflect upon what we had learned the day before about the importance of protecting this vital resource.
Surrounded by the wonders of nature, I felt thankful to all of you out there who work so tirelessly to protect our fragile natural environment for the next generation. And to everyone at the OUFC, thank you for 50 years of action and a wonderful weekend full of life and learning!