Our Engagement Approach

Engaging with nature is good for people. It makes people happier and healthier. It helps people to recover faster from physical and mental illnesses and it helps to reduce anger, fear, stress and depression.

Engaging with nature is also good for nature. People who have a connection to nature are more likely to behave positively towards it. They are more likely to care for and want to restore the nature on their doorsteps.

Through our engagement work, we aim to inspire and enable people to connect with and take action for nature. Ultimately, we want to deliver our Strategy 2030 goal of:

Communities across Scotland are taking action for nature in an increasingly diverse, collective effort in which everyone can play their part.

“No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced.”

Sir David Attenborough

Our engagement principles

We apply the following principles to our engagement work:

We are inclusive – we will ensure there are ways for everyone to engage with and take action for nature
We enable – we will upskill and resource others to increase our impact
We are journey-focused – we will ensure that there is always a next step and/or opportunity on a supporter’s journey
We are data-driven – we will use data to inform and improve our engagement work
We are open – we will take an open and participative approach to our work

Our engagement priorities

Whilst we’d love to be able to follow up on every engagement opportunity that comes our way, we need to be selective in the activities that we pursue in order to make the most impact with limited resources.

We therefore prioritise the following:

Engagement that directly or indirectly results in positive outcomes for nature
Engagement that enables a community-led approach
Engagement that has the potential to achieve scale

Our journey of engagement

While every individual’s journey will be unique and not necessarily linear, our work with people aims to help everyone realise their role in protecting and restoring nature. The following is a representation of the journey of engagement we hope to move people along.

The ambition is not to move every supporter along the entirety of this journey, but to always provide a next step or opportunity should somebody want to take it.

To download a pdf of our full Engagement Strategy, please click here.

Young Leaders at Falls of Clyde, 2022 — The Trust’s volunteer Young Leaders at Falls of Clyde © Pete Haskell