Communicating information to difficult-to-reach landholders: perspectives of natural resource management communication practitioners

Abstract

Landholder participation in conservation programs is vital for achieving the environmental goals of natural resource management organisations. However, some landholders can be difficult to reach. This article presents findings based on telephone interviews with communications practitioners within 22 Australian organisations involved with promoting national resource management. The research provides insights into how communication with difficult-to-reach landholders might be improved by investigating the perceptions and communication practices of Australian national resource management communications officers and their organisations. Overall, the results indicate that differing communication strategies were used and perceived as necessary to reach different groups of landholders. Nevertheless, while organisations used a range of communication channels, there is relatively little targeting of difficult-to-reach landholders, nor evaluation of the effectiveness of communications with difficult-to-reach landholders. We suggest that greater commitment, investment, effort and careful tailoring of channel–message combinations to landholder groups are likely to be necessary to improve communications and thereby achieve greater engagement in national resource management.