Date: Friday, April 25, 2025
Hi, we are Shuli Rank and Delaney Wellington, and we work on the Educational Research & Evaluation Team at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). WCS runs five New York City wildlife parks – the Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, New York Aquarium, Prospect Park Zoo, and Queens Zoo – and conducts conservation work and research around the world. WCS aims to empower individuals to care for and protect the environment.
To do this, we must understand how zoos connect with communities to build a conservation ethic. In 2023, we conducted research to identify conservation actions that were meaningful to our Queens Zoo communities: creating wildlife habitat using native plants stood out.
In 2024, we piloted a project to engage Queens Zoo visitors in cultivating and planting native plants. This project was grounded in community-based social marketing (CBSM) theory, a research-based approach to support conservation action more effectively than education alone. We tested five CBSM strategies to engage visitors with native plants: 1) messaging, 2) commitments, 3) products, 4) prompts, and 5) social norms.
To begin, we engaged Queens Zoo visitors in a messaging activity at the zoo, discussing the benefits of native plants and dispelling perceived barriers using a True-False game. We recruited 128 families to cultivate native plants at home, asking them to commit to “flower sit” and provided them with seeds and soil (products). In the weeks that followed, we sent email and text prompts to inquire whether they had followed through—36% of the 128 families responded and 74% of them reported planting their seeds. Finally, we invited participants to an event in a local park to plant their seedlings and conducted interviews to learn about their experience. Five families attended the planting event, adding native plants to over 1,000 square feet. In interviews, participants described the ease of cultivating seedlings and the value of returning to the park with their families and working together to help the park flourish. They also described how they shared the experience with others (social norms).
Are you thinking about how you could use CBSM? Look through over 200 case studies on the Community-Based Social Marketing website to get inspired and inform your approach.
Are you interested in creating wildlife habitat? The National Wildlife Federation can help you or your organization start. If you already have native plants, then mark it on the Pollinator Pathway or with Homegrown National Park to document your impact.
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