Our story

The beginning

The Pollinator Movement started as an experiment to do conservation in a different way. The goal was to imagine and build new possibilities for protecting biodiversity.

Why?

Historically, conservation has not been an inclusive field. In fact, it has left out the voices of people like us: women, Indigenous peoples, people from the Global South, and civil society. This has resulted in one narrow, yet dominant way of doing conservation.

The process of creating a new way of making conservation.

To create a new way of making conservation, we started by focusing on the voices of three groups that have traditionally defended Nature, yet have no representation in the global conservation agenda:

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous knowledges are necessary for changing the way in which we relate to Nature. They offer a different frame of reference of what is Nature and how are we related to it. Their exclusion from global agendas that guide the environmental efforts of the world perpetuates anthropocentric hierarchies that place humans over non-humans. To help biodiversity, we need to start by understanding our place as one of the many species that inhabit this Earth.

Women

Historically, women have been responsible for caring for other species and educating others about the importance of taking care of Nature. These activities are regarded as having a secondary, less important role within global environmental efforts to fight climate change and biodiversity loss. The resulting agenda promotes a conservation that favours reason over emotion, perpetuating the division between humans and Nature.

Civil society

Before becoming scientists and/or experts, everybody in out team was a civilian worried about biodiversity loss. As civilians, we encountered very few opportunities to become involved in the regeneration of Nature. Most of the options available out there have to do with reduce, reuse, recycle. This is not enough. Civilians can do more than being mindful consumers. It's time to give them the tools they need to regenerate Nature. It's time to believe in them.

The outcome: Biocultural Citizen Science, a pedagogy designed to protect biodiversity through the civil society.

Once the strengths of our voices became clear, it was time to put them into action. We embed the strengths of our voices into a pedagogy that guides civilians to help protect pollinators and birds.

We called it Biocultural Citizen Science because of the biocultural memory, a collective memory that comes from our Mexican ancestors and tells us it is possible to relate to nature in a conscious, respectful and supportive way.

Biocultural Citizen Science is a collaborative process that goes beyond involving the public in scientific research. At the heart of this pedagogy is the Indigenous principle of reciprocity. Civilians learn to see themselves as a species participating in a larger community of living beings, and learn how to give back to this community.

The beauty of biocultural citizen science is that, contrary to traditional conservation, our team of experts - scientists and Indigenous peoples - do not create the habitats, but rather guide all those interested in creating spaces for regenerating native bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other birds step by step.

It does not matter if you are a child or an adult, if you have previous knowledge in conservation or if you do not. Everyone is welcome to participate in biocultural citizen science!

Don't be afraid of using your voice!

Our project is not only helping the conservation of pollinators and birds living in cities, but is also in line with the two most novel global conservation frameworks:

The New Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The first draft was published in 2021.
Biodivercities by 2030 by the World Economic Forum and the Alexander von Humboldt Institute. Published in 2022.

This shows how the world is in desperate need of novel approaches that include a diversity of voices. Don't be afraid to use your voice!

Timeline