On June 2022, Synchronicity Earth and the Ellen Fund invited friends, partners, and beyond to share stories which celebrate conservationists doing inspiring work to protect threatened species and ecosystems as part of the #ChampionsOfTheEndangered campaign. Organisations and individuals joined in from all around the world, sharing the stories of over 100 Champions of the Endangered.
There is World Ranger Day and International Day of Women and Girls in Science, but so far we haven’t yet seen a truly inclusive social media campaign welcoming the celebration of the many different faces of conservation, and the wide diversity of skills and types of action that make up this movement.
The types of stories and faces which dominate the conversation about wildlife are also limited- people know the name David Attenborough and Jane Goodall, they know that elephants and tigers are endangered, but there are so many more stories to share of the often-overlooked people and communities striving to safeguard their local wildlife and wild areas, especially lesser-known species and habitats which have important roles to play in the global ecosystem.
This is why Synchronicity Earth and The Ellen Fund worked with the BBC Natural History Unit to create six short films highlighting the stories of incredible conservationists working on less popular species like crocodiles and large storks, or unusual approaches, such as approaching young Samburu warriors to become wildlife ambassadors. This project was supported by our Synchronicity Portfolio.
The first six champions
Each of the stories told in the Champions of the Endangered campaign so far have shown a different side to conservation than the typical news stories we read about (e.g., New national protected area) and focus on the story of an individual whose work is making a big difference for at least one species threatened with extinction.
Caleb Ofori-Boateng and Afia Birago’s puddle frog (Herp Conservation Ghana)
View this post on Instagram
Purnima Devi Barman and the hargila (The Hargila Army)
View this post on Instagram
Jeneria Lekilelei and the African lion (Ewaso Lions)
View this post on Instagram
Chanthasone Phommachanh (Olay) and the saola (Saola Foundation)
View this post on Instagram
Luis Entena and the cotton-top tamarin (Proyecto Tití)
View this post on Instagram
Tess Gatan-Balbas and the Philippine crocodile (Mabuwaya Foundation)
View this post on Instagram
Call out for champions
But these films are just the beginning. The conservation movement is made up of thousands of people using every skill you can think of to make Earth a better place to live for all of its inhabitants. We invited friends, partners and beyond to share stories of the people who have inspired them thanks to their work to preserve species and ecosystems.
We would like to expand our understanding of what a conservationist is and could be. Champions do not need to be someone who works in the field, for example, or someone whose input to conservation is their full-time job or even a ‘job’ at all, they could be a volunteer or community member. Champions can be community organisers/leaders, farmers, rangers, writers, students, tree planters, advocates, desk-based researchers, field-based scientists, zookeepers, teachers, guides, etc. and we would like to showcase stories from all around the world.
Here are some of the Champions stories shared on 29 June 2022 (or view the thread on Twitter):
We celebrate today this #ChampionsOfTheEndangered @clarice_butsapu .She is a young woman dedicated to the protection of the Forets and their species. Recently she led a campaign for the protection of the Virunga National Park which abounds within it rare species such as gorillas pic.twitter.com/gcFfhpmoZg
— Réseau CREF (@reseau_cref) June 29, 2022
View this post on Instagram
🐸 Bird surveys by day, catching frogs by night – Calvin ‘Blacka’ Fenton has been key to conservation activities on Montserrat for 25+ years. Helping Durrell save the mountain chicken has been one of his great achievements. #ChampionsOfTheEndangered @synchearth @theellenfund pic.twitter.com/6uLigxjgVC
— Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (@DurrellWildlife) June 28, 2022
View this post on Instagram
We are celebrating #ChampionsOfTheEndangered with @synchearth and @theellendfund today! Meet Joko Guntoro, Director and Founder of the @Satucita Foundation, who is on a mission to conserve freshwater turtles, tortoises and their habitats in northern Sumatra, #Indonesia. pic.twitter.com/TGsUKeCg6A
— ASAP (@IUCN_ASAP) June 29, 2022
View this post on Instagram
We are celebrating #ChampionsOfTheEndangered with our hosts @SynchEarth.
We’d love to profile Efran ‘Chilo’ Toau, who works with our partners in Sulawesi: Progres. Chilo, 27, is from Tentena, an area around Poso Lake, Sulawesi.
🧵 1/5 pic.twitter.com/k6BrcRfHAV
— Shoal (@Shoal_Org) June 29, 2022
Do you love nudibranchs? You’re not alone. Meet Morokot, marine photographer and conservation leader who’s been helping us protect Cambodia’s precious coastline since joining us through @CLPawards. 🐢🌱🦠
Find out more: https://t.co/YZkeqbTBa1 pic.twitter.com/dFJj9nglxc
— Fauna & Flora International (@FaunaFloraInt) June 28, 2022
But this work wouldn’t be possible without the support & dedication of our often unsung #champions: our office team & Trustees.
There are many wildflowers in the @Buzz_dont_tweet meadow; all amazing in their own way & all #ChampionsOfTheEndangered
🧵2/2 #BetterTogether pic.twitter.com/4NKoYBcEzl
— Buglife (@Buzz_dont_tweet) June 29, 2022
We are proud to partner with many #ChampionsOfTheEndangered. Dr. Augustin K. Basabose leads @Primatexpertise in the DRC. Since 2017, Primate Expertise has grown 30,000 Ape Trees to aid in Grauer’s gorilla population recovery.
📸: @allison_shelley@SynchEarth @TheEllenFund pic.twitter.com/hbVDfLYP08
— Wild Earth Allies (@WildEarthAllies) June 29, 2022
Taking a fresh look at what can be an economic/ecological transition also has to do with an understanding of why standing forests are valued globally as world treasures. – @belenpaez #ChampionsOfTheEndangered pic.twitter.com/C609AzoGhi
— Fundación Pachamama (@FPachamama_Ec) June 29, 2022
Finally, we were delighted that many of our staff members got involved to share stories of inspiration, particularly highlighting team members whose roles are vital to our operations and the support we are able to grant our partners, but who are usually less visible in the organisation.
View this post on Instagram
Thank you to everyone who joined in on June 29 by sharing stories of #ChampionsOfTheEndangered, it has been a great success.
Frequently Asked Questions
We cannot make it this year due to a content clash, will this be happening again?
2022 is the first time this campaign is being run, and we’d love for you to join in. If the campaign gains momentum and support from the conservation community and beyond we will explore making it a regular social media event, and this page will be updated.
What kind of content should we be sharing?
It entirely depends on what you have, and feel free to reuse blogs, videos, graphics, etc that showcase champions that you can reshare under the #ChampionsOfTheEndangered hashtag on June 29.
Images: Good images to accompany the stories are the most important. The aim of this hashtag is to show the many faces of conservation, so particularly portraits of the champion, preferably in a context that makes sense for the story (i.e., not a group image or tightly cropped profile image of head and shoulders, or a desk-based image of someone when the story is about them working outside).
Links: These posts do not need to link to any campaign website, this is a social media campaign and we would like our audience to click through the hashtag to find more stories. If you have a blog or interview that you would like to direct people to or a fundraising campaign to support the champion’s work, you can use these posts to link to them but please do not use the hashtag for unrelated content.
What is the correct hashtag use?
We only have one hashtag: #ChampionsOfTheEndangered – please use camel case so the words are easy to distinguish visually and for screen readers, and do not use variations such as #ChampionOfTheEndangered or #ChampionsForTheEndangered. If you have enough character count or are using images, please tag Synchronicity Earth (@synchearth on Twitter and Instagram) and the Ellen Fund (@theellenfund on Twitter and Instagram) so we can amplify your posts!
Which channels?
Primarily on Twitter and Instagram, but we are also posting content to Facebook and LinkedIn.
We do not have any suitable stories, or do not have the time to craft something, how can we be involved?
Help share other stories, please! We have been posting six #ChampionsOfTheEndangered social media films (examples already posted are the films embedded above) made by the BBC Natural History Unit which you can repost on June 29 as well as the other stories shared using the hashtag.
