Very few companies can give PR support with an understanding of conservation.

Teppei Dohke, Secretary, IUCN-J

Asami Yamamoto, Hitoshizuku (Yamamoto):
Our collaboration began when you called me. At the time, I was actually on a workcation, relaxing on a beach in Okinawa. I saw that it was someone from Tokyo, and it was you! It took me by surprise.

Teppei Dohke, IUCN-J (Dohke):
Sorry for interrupting your relaxation time! I knew you from your time at the WWF, because you did some work with the IUCN-J’s secretariat: the Nature Conservation Society of Japan (NACS-J). A photo you’d taken of the sea was on the cover of the NACS-J’s newsletter. And just at that time, I was struggling with the IUCN-J’s PR. So I decided to contact you.

Yamamoto:
It was great timing. What problems were you contending with?

Dohke:
In December 2022, at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15), international conservation targets were established for 2030. As I thought about how to meet those targets, I felt that we still came up short as a base of operations in Japan. In particular, we needed to raise awareness of our activities, increase our number of supporters, and improve our operational abilities. I wanted to build a PR foundation, so we could consciously and strategically build relationships with new backers. There were things we couldn’t achieve on our own, so we were searching for outside help.

Yamamoto:
And why did you decide to approach Hitoshizuku?

Dohke:
I’ve known your CEO, Hiroshi Kokubo, for a long time. I knew that he started a PR company called Hitoshizuku, and in fact, you previously worked with the WWF, a IUCN-J member. So I’d hoped to work together some day. Very few companies can give PR support with an understanding of conservation and biodiversity. When it came to PR support, you were the first company I thought of, so I decided to speak to you.

Yamamoto:
Hitoshizuku seeks to help people trying to change the world for the better. And it’s my goal too, so I was delighted to hear from you. I really wanted to help. I’ve worked for an NGO myself, so I understand the strength of your resolve. For this project, we also needed someone with web and social media expertise, and we wanted them to share the same understanding of an NGO’s work. So we teamed up with a former WWF employee: Nakagawa from NabeJan.

Your understanding of our structure and characteristics allowed us to smoothly establish PR infrastructure.

The IUCN-J’s office

Yamamoto:
Firstly, we established a platform for distributing information. Then we helped you to set goals, and create content that would attract supporters. Looking back, how do you think it went?

Dohke:
It went very well. There was lots I didn’t understand until I gave it a try. For example, we initially tried to increase the number of people making small donations. But after we got going, we saw that many of the donations were larger than we expected. So we adjusted our PR efforts to focus on both the volume and size of the donations.

Also, there are only two people in our department, including myself, so it generally takes a while for us to tackle something new. In this case, it was important to start working towards the 2030 targets. So the speedy improvement of our PR capabilities was a real achievement.

Yamamoto:
Establishing a PR platform while working on various other tasks would have ended up taking a very long time. And the results would have been incohesive. I’m glad we agreed to a two-month time limit. We deliberately created a system that you could continue yourself, after we’d finished giving our support.

Dohke:
After building that system, the IUCN-J started distributing information on social media. We gradually got the hang of it, and we manage without any major problems. You guided us on everything from the tone to the content, which was very reassuring. Rather than worrying, “Is this OK?”, we had someone on the outside saying, “Let’s go with this!” That gave us peace of mind.

Yamamoto:
I think that our knowhow allows us to provide tools and services to non-profit organizations that aren’t available in books, or online. When we first asked for public support on social media, there was a big response. It led to new backers, which was a great feeling. You’re an appealing figure, and I’m sure that many more people will decide to support the IUCN-J.

Dohke:
We’ve had a relationship with some of those new backers for a long time. I realized that the connections we’ve established so far often turn into long-term support. Meanwhile, many people have encountered us for the first time. They share our ambitions, and I feel it’s possible that they’ll expand their support.

Yamamoto:
After working with us, what’s your impression of Hitoshizuku?

Dohke:
The ICUN is a network, made up of various organizations and advisors. The structure is a little unusual, and we work on a broad range of projects. It often takes time for people to understand us, but you were familiar with our background. Right from the beginning, we were able to proceed quickly and smoothly.
I get on well with you, and with your CEO, Kokubo. You felt more like colleagues than consultants; we worked together as a unified team.

Yamamoto:
Thank you very much. I enjoyed the opportunity to work within the IUCN-J. And I appreciate the compliments, although I think our support was lacking in some ways. At the outset, we aimed to increase your number of backers by a certain amount. And we didn’t hit that target, which is a real shame. Is there anything in particular you think we need to improve?

Dohke:
Here’s something we noticed. Early on, we produced a postcard with details of the IUCN-J, and a request for support. And recently, someone pointed out that the font size is too small. When we designed the card, we didn’t know what kind of people would end up supporting us. We didn’t know who’d actually be reading it. Over the course of this project, we discovered that many of our backers are in their 50s, or older. I’d like to respond by making a new PR tool—something accessible to a broader range of people.

Yamamoto:
Thank you for pointing that out. We were working under various constraints, but in the future, we’ll make use of the feedback and experience we gained on this project.

Dohke:
Goals should be achieved by the whole team. We were working on other things concurrently, which slowed things down in many ways. I’d like to establish a system that lets us sit down and properly concentrate on PR.

A charity event, featuring IUCN-J goodwill ambassador Iruka and weather forecaster Hiroko Ida, facilitated natural communication between participants, creating the opportunity to garner more support.

We want to open our PR initiatives to other organizations, and achieve a nature-positive future.

Yamamoto:
You hear the phrase “nature positive” increasingly often, so I think that the IUCN’s activities will continue to attract more and more attention. Is there anything you’d like to work on in the future? Or anything you’d like to collaborate on with Hitoshizuku?

Dohke:
今回はIUCN-This time, the IUCN-J and Hitoshizuku teamed up. But next time, I’d like to include IUCN-J members, and work on something together.
Conservation isn’t a problem that one NGO can solve alone. To raise awareness of the value of nature, and to convey a sense of crisis, we have to communicate from multiple perspectives. In other countries, various pro-environment groups meet for 30 minutes once every two weeks. They tell each other what they’re going to say at international conferences, or what they’re going to put on social media. It would be great to do something similar in Japan.

Yamamoto:
In the past, the IUCN-J hosted a gathering for organizations working on environmental issues. I was there myself; I learned a lot, and made some great connections. We all work for different organizations, but we’re aiming for the same future, so it would be nice to support each other’s campaigns, and share each other’s content on social media.

Dohke:
Absolutely. Organizations tackling the same issues are colleagues, not competitors. We want to continue to increase the number of IUCN-J backers, but if it goes well, I want to uncover our process, and share that knowhow with others.

Yamamoto:
That idea makes a lot of sense for a network like IUCN-J.

Dohke:
I think that our member organizations face many of the same problems. They’re groping for solutions while suffering from a lack of staff. By sharing our successes and failures, we can lift up the entire network.
Also, we need to keep raising awareness of the “nature positive” concept, so it can be a springboard for future action.

Yamamoto:
The term means halting the damage to biodiversity. But it also means traversing the path to recovery.

Dohke:
Right. When you compare Japan to other countries, there’s a gap in awareness.
Globally, the term “nature positive” is becoming more widely recognized, alongside the term “carbon neutral.” But in Japan, “nature positive” still doesn’t have the profile that “carbon neutral” does. So we need to raise awareness.
The circumstances at the moment are truly terrible. “Nature positive” conveys a sense of crisis; it shows that we can’t go on like this. And recently, the number of people spreading nature positivity has been increasing. I’d like to involve more and more people, and come up with all sorts of interesting projects.

Photography: Hiroyuki Horigome
Editing: Mayuki Tsujihara
Translation Editing: Satomi Furukawa