Connect-Understand-Act

Central to the conservation challenge today is human behaviour and the understanding that being part of the problem, we are also part of the solution. Zoos Victoria’s Connect-Understand-Act (CUA) model is a proven behaviour change tool in motivating change for good and inspiring conservation action.

What is a community conservation campaign?

Campaigns designed to empower individuals to take a simple action that can have a positive impact on wildlife and our planet.

Zoos Victoria has a number of award-winning conservation campaigns that encourage visitors, schools, workplaces and communities to make simple changes that can have real and positive effects on the wildlife we share our planet with. For example, we ask our community to donate old mobile phones to protect wild gorillas in Africa, switch to recycled toilet paper to protect native forest habitats, and encourage the purchase of certified sustainable (and labelled) palm oil products. All of these campaigns support our business imperative and moral purpose in fighting extinction and creating a future rich in wildlife. What is yours?

For other businesses, this could look like asking their community (individuals, members, staff etc) to:

• Correctly recycle or use natural resources (ie water, parklands) responsibly
• Be a responsible consumer and switch to a sustainable product (i.e. energy efficient goods/services, use reusable coffee cups, buy ethically sourced food)
• Adopt a healthy lifestyle to improve health or reduce emissions (ie walking or riding to work)

Our CUA program helps like-minded organisations build the confidence and capacity to develop their own campaign and be empowered to implement the approach for their own cause.

LEAP also delivers a one-day professional development workshop, Behaviour Change Essentials, inviting participants to discover how the CUA principles are applied onsite at Zoos Victoria. Here you can learn from real-world case studies and dissect the model under the guidance of our industry experts.