PUBLIC RELATIONS
CHANGING ATTITUDES 2.0 Stef Kaiser reports on the next phase of Confor’s ongoing effort to change perceptions of the forestry and timber sector.
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onfor has maintained its public relations activity, the Changing Attitudes campaign, for a decade now, alongside its lobbying work with politicians. Since 2017, Changing Attitudes is a recognised priority in the Confor business plan and in collaboration with key members, Confor has communicated a consistent and agreed set of industry key messages mainly through media channels, but also as part of our stakeholder engagement, events and social media presence. These activities have proven effective and helped support the growing success of the sector.
In some ways, the sector is now becoming the victim of its own success, and in the year of COP26, forestry and timber have increasingly attracted the attention of the media. This has, for sure, created some very positive momentum for our industry; however, in the media and social media realm, it is controversy that sells, and commercial forestry has not been immune to criticism and inflammatory commentary from polarised lobbyists and influencers who want to limit productive planting and turn politicians against it. The motivations and drivers include: • • • •
a desire to focus public policy and funding on broadleaf planting or rewilding a personal/institutional dislike of conifers/commercial forestry a wish to ‘protect’ agricultural land or game shooting resistance to planting/land use change locally
The narratives that opponents deploy usually encompass out-dated and false perceptions, often a result of a lack of understanding of the bigger picture of sustainability in land use. The perpetuation of these myths combined with the failure of governments (notably the UK government) to counter them actively will have a deleterious impact on the development of the sector in the years ahead.
Who are the people we want to influence? For our next step of the Changing Attitudes campaign, we will increase the focus of our PR efforts both in terms of messaging and audience. For our sector to thrive and secure its potential, ultimately we need to influence the policy-makers who shape the policies and regulations that can either pave or stand in the way of efficient and sustainable tree planting and timber production. In the case of environmental organisations, we believe that there are reasonable voices that we can work with to communicate the complementary benefits of productive forestry, native woodlands, jobs,
carbon and nature. We believe that, along side our lobbying efforts, it is through general media channels, in particular Tier 1 media (such as The Guardian, The BBC, Sky TV) that we can reach key audiences, whilst influencing the opinion of the general public at the same time. Informing and gaining the support of the general public is a continuing objective, though changing perceptions and attitudes of a diverse group of 60+ million people will always be a challenge and possibly beyond the scope of the 2022 campaign.
6 FORESTRY & TIMBER NEWS • December 2021
RECENT MEDIA ENGAGEMENT DAVID LEE, CONFOR MEDIA ADVISOR Confor’s main approach is to place regular proactive articles in the media and to react quickly and positively to media requests to comment, especially where productive forestry is criticised. Recent proactive coverage includes promoting the positive paper on productive forestry by Dr Andrew Cameron (read a summary on page 48 in this magazine). In terms of reactive media engagement around COP26, recent coverage has included an article in The Observer and an interview, a Sky News feature and a post-COP26 commentary for The Herald’s annual forestry supplement and The Scotsman. Before COP26, a Scotsman feature article focused on another of Confor’s key themes - the multiple benefits of modern forestry - while there was positive regional coverage of an MSP’s visit to a Confor member, a vital part of our media work. We have also engaged closely with the farming media, especially in Scotland, and have regular articles published in Scottish Farmer.
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