Helping farmers protect native biodiversity
Currently, half of Aotearoa New Zealand’s land cover is pastoral farming. Although native habitats have been destroyed to create this farmland, the land still contains one-quarter of our country’s remaining native vegetation. This means that working with farmers is key to supporting native biodiversity.
The Farming with Native Biodiversity (FwNB) project was set up to make it easier for farmers to protect and enhance the native biodiversity already existing on their land. NZ Landcare Trust administered this project with funding from Living Water, Silver Fern Farms, MPI’s Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund and the BioHeritage National Science Challenge/Ngā Koiora Tuku Iho.
The ultimate goal was to develop and pilot enduring resources for farmers and farm advisors that would significantly improve native biodiversity within pastoral farms. The resources needed to be visually engaging, accessible and easy for non-scientists to understand.
This project had many stakeholders with diverse needs, and it required a high level of flexibility and adaptability as resources were developed and ideas about the next stages changed. It required open communication and strong project management skills to manage the many parties and outputs involved.
Over 18 months, StudioC worked with the FwNB team to develop a strategy to communicate with farmers and advisors. This involved understanding that farmers vary in their interest and experience with biodiversity and that different tools would be needed to reach these various groups.
The logomark is inspired by the concept of building a strong foundation, with all elements feeding back into the earth. The flowing, curved lines evoke a rainbow, symbolising Uenuku, the Māori god of enlightenment and wisdom.
The first element represents the collective strength of the community, with mirrored strands symbolising the collaboration between farmers and scientists.
The second element reflects the flourishing land that rises from these strong foundations.
The third element represents the living organisms—plants, animals, and other species—that thrive within this ecosystem.
As part of the brand strategy, we created custom illustrations and icons that are featured across the project's collateral and integrated into the website we designed and built. (Yes, we design and build websites too!) The website showcases the project and serves as a hub for the range of resources designed to support different audiences served by the project.
We also captured team photography and unique landscape shots for the website, including video and aerial drone shots.
We wrote, built and designed nine short eLearning modules, which incorporate activities and interviews with farmers and experts talking about native biodiversity on New Zealand farms. We leaned on our team’s strengths in science communication and visual storytelling to help scientists explain complex topics in relatable ways.
The eLearning modules also link to downloadable one-page worksheets that summarise key points and actions.
StudioC also created a workshop toolkit for catchment groups to learn about biodiversity and how to start conversations about biodiversity in their area. The resources were co-designed with farmers and other stakeholders through several pilot workshops.
Our contribution to this project was to help farmers and farm advisors engage with complex concepts by presenting the material in a visual way that is easier for a general audience to engage with. Science is traditionally bland, so adding visuals and colour worked well to attract an audience. The website is user-friendly and inviting, encouraging people to use the resources hosted there. The branding is clear and consistent, which helped FwNB build a strong identity for the project.
The way StudioC translated the science for a non-scientific audience meant the uptake of the resources was strong. The eLearning modules were sent to over 100 schools to use as part of the agriculture curriculum, so the work will hopefully impact the next generation of farmers and farm advisors.
“StudioC Design really brought the ideas and plans for the Farming with Native Biodiversity project to life. They created structure out of a jumble of ideas, and produced every piece of work with top class design, making it easy to read and appealing to stakeholders.
They gave the project a face and a ‘personality’ which attracted people to the resources and information. The wide set of skills within StudioC Design was highly valuable as they were able to develop the range of communication formats I was looking for to deliver value to our various audiences and stakeholders.
The project was run in a co-design approach, which meant we didn’t know exactly what the resources would look like at the beginning, but it meant we could bring learnings from conversations with farmers and farm advisors into the design work, which helped create a more useful product. StudioC was fantastic in embracing this approach.”
— Esther, Project Lead, Farming with Native Biodiversity
