How to Build the Network Effects: Global Rewilding Communicators Network – September 2024 Edition

Photo credit: Warren Farnell from Getty Images

Meeting Summary – September 12, 2024

The Global Rewilding Communicators Network, an initiative of the Global Rewilding Alliance, aims to connect communicators active in the rewilding movement from all around the world. Our goal is to unite people across the movement, share best practices, highlight upcoming events, celebrate successes, and foster connections to better support one another.

Thank you to everyone who joined us live on September 12, 2024 – an intimate group of key rewilding communicators from a wide variety of organisations across the world. We had participants joining from India, Italy, Belgium, Philippines, Netherlands, England, Switzerland, Norway, and Scotland. We are truly a global movement!

The focus of our session was on ‘how to build the network effects within the rewilding movement’. For those that missed the call, and those interested in the work that is happening ‘behind the scenes’, we summarise the main takeaways in this article.

Photo credit: Life On White

Celebrating Rewilding Success

While it is tempting to rush on to the next thing after achieving milestones, we believe it is important to take a moment to celebrate our many collective successes and stories. This builds our sense of ‘hope into action’ that then acts as a stable foundation for the next steps.

The network shared some incredible news and success stories worldwide – to name only a few:

• There is evident appetite for everyday people to learn about rewilding, as Embercombe soon launch the next round of The Rewilding Training with a nearly-full waiting list.
• A few days before the meeting, tigers reached the forest habitat in India, part of the work of The Corbett Foundation who are working to restore key forests across 2,000 hectares. The return and presence of the apex predator is very exciting; a sign that they are doing something right! Since their work began, the barren land has transformed to a diverse landscape – and is filled with activity. On their transit walks, they also spot occasional leopards, Indian gazelle, wild pigs as well as tigers; now birds have returned, insects in the grass, nests in the trees.
• A recent study from The Blue Alliance found that there are 2.3 times more fish inside the Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) than they had accounted for previously, showing the positive impacts of their work in expanding MPAs in The Philippines.
• The team from Trees for Life celebrate the volunteers that are taking part in their most recent Rewilding Week, in which groups convene for a week to rewild the Scottish Highlands and restore the Caledonian forest.
• Back in Spetember, some boy schools join Ferncliffe in their mistbelt forest to dig holes, help native tree planting, and generate quite a lot of chaos! As only 0.5% of South Africa is forested, every forest and each tree is precious. They also celebrate as herons are now returning to their wetlands.
• Our team at The Global Rewilding Alliance are celebrating welcoming our 200th Alliance Partner – and beyond!

Beyond this group, success stories keep pouring in, and they were particularly feline that week:

• Rewilding Portugal celebrate the first sighting of the endangered European wildcat in the Greater Côa Valley rewilding site.
• Scotland are celebrating the second cohort of wildcats released into the Cairngorms National Park.
• A bigger cat: Rewilding Argentina recently celebrated the release of another female Jaguar to El Impenetrable National Park, the second to join a handful of wild male jaguars, once again returning the hope for a healthy wild population.

This is the power of rewilding!

Now, on to the main topic of this meeting: Network Effects.

Scottish wildcat, photo credit: Matthew Gibson

The Power of Network Effects

Network effects occur when a system, organisation, or community becomes more valuable as more individuals or groups participate in it. In the context of rewilding, the idea is that as more people, organisations, and partners join the movement, share knowledge, and collaborate, the overall impact of the network grows exponentially.

In other words:

The more connected we are, the more we can amplify our collective impact on rewilding efforts. 

What are the benefits of network effects?

As a global alliance, the Global Rewilding Alliance naturally thrives on network effects, but harnessing network effects is beneficial for each of us and can bring unique power to our individual and collective efforts. Investing in our network has several key benefits:

1. Shared Knowledge and Resources: Through our alliances, we can easily exchange best practices, lessons learned, and resources—helping to reduce redundant efforts and fast-track successful strategies. The collective experience of a global network enables each organisation to innovate and problem-solve faster.
2. Amplified Messaging: A united network allows for more powerful communication campaigns. A message, campaign, or success story shared across multiple organisations not only increases reach but also adds credibility and strength to the cause. Imagine the global impact of synchronized messages across regions on social media, in newsletters, and during rewilding events.
3. Collective Influence: Our combined voices and actions are far more impactful when we are seen as a united front. Whether it’s influencing policymakers, securing funding, or raising public awareness, being part of a global network gives us more leverage to advocate for large-scale rewilding projects and policies.
4. Cross-Pollination of Ideas: When individuals and organisations work together, ideas and innovations can flow more freely between different regions. This cross-pollination can lead to creative solutions that wouldn’t have emerged in isolation. Consider this one as advice from the bees!
5. Support and Solidarity: Finally, being part of a strong network provides emotional and practical support. Celebrating successes, navigating challenges, and standing in solidarity makes the movement more resilient.

Ready to gain knowledge, expand your reach, build credibility, amplify your influence, spark creativity, and strengthen support? Next we go through some examples of how this has already worked, and then how you can get involved.

Sunbathing Sea Lions, photo credit: Pascal Borener from Pexels

Network Effects in Action

Now that we have established why we love network effects… it is time to explore what has already worked.

In the rewilding movement we have many examples, from big shared events to small purposeful collaborations, that have created powerful network effects. Let’s have a look at a few for inspiration and encouragement:

• Social media collaboration: Rewilding Argentina’s Anteater release, Wildlife Conservation Trust & GRA Instagram live, Samara Karoo & Journeys with Purpose
• Events: WILD12, Scotland: The Big Picture Conference, Rewilding Hope Land to Sea Conference
• Press: European Bison in Romania (Rewilding Europe & WWF Romania), Przewalski’s horses return to Kazakhstan (Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative & coalition) and UK’s first Bison bridges (Kent Wildlife Trust & Wildwood Trust).
• Top Voices: Rewilding Weekly, Rewildology, another 10 rewilding podcasts.

World Rewilding Day

Each year, on the 20th March, rewilders around the world convene to raise awareness of rewilding, to celebrate our successes and drive even more inspiring action. On the day, and for the build-up and aftermath, there is a huge spike in collaboration, sharing and exponential growth of all sorts.

People everywhere made films, launched books, held events and sent messages of “hope into action” (this year’s theme) to their communities. On every continent, thousands of people – possibly already millions – are working for the return of nature.

The network effects get put into action, e.g.:

• The Global Collective Impact shared success stories from many organisations around the world. This showed that rewilding is truly an active global movement. We wouldn’t have achieved that same effect focusing on just one organisation.
• We connected with many LinkedIn Top Voices who helped us share the message of hope into action and helped raise awareness to people that had never heard of rewilding before.
• Webinars for rewilders were organised to get practitioners together and create a sense of belonging. This increased motivation and inspiration and fueled people’s passion to keep going.

A family of frogs, photo credit: Agus Fitriyanto from Getty Images

How to Harness the Power of Network Effects

The aim of the call was to make a start at answering the golden question: How can we most simply and powerfully create network effects to amplify our collective influence? The next section explores some possible answers, from contributions on the call and after.

To maximise the potential of network effects, we must intentionally build mechanisms that foster collaboration and communication:

• Strengthen Connections: We encourage regular interaction between organisations.
  It is all about connection – whether connecting with your local surrounding communities or trusting fellow rewilders, reach out to them. Get in touch with organisations that inspire you that are working on similar projects try to organise a virtual coffee meet-ups – connect from human to human. This is the first step in creating an effective alliance that can then benefit from network effects. Think friendly emails, LinkedIn connections, in-person introductions, or ask a common connection for an introduction.

What you can do this week: Send an email or LinkedIn connection request to two rewilders you would like to get to know more – introduce yourself, share what you admire about their work. The goal is not to “get anything” but simply be friendly. This could spark a coffee chat and lead to interesting conversations and collaborations!

• Boost Each Other’s Content: Whether it’s liking, sharing, reposting, or directly collaborating on content, engaging with each other’s social media posts, blogs, or success stories helps to create visibility. We should make it a habit to amplify each other’s voices online, leveraging our global community for maximum effect.

What you can do this week: Choose one or two posts from fellow rewilders or organisations you admire and share them on your social media platform or newsletter—add a personal comment about why their work matters to you. Our Forward Calendar stores upcoming, exciting announcements, events and more from our global movement with the goal is to make it easy to support each other’s initiatives.

• Synchronize Efforts: Align our communication strategies for key events, global rewilding days, and high-visibility campaigns. A unified approach, whether through shared hashtags, themes, or collective actions, can multiply the reach and resonance of our message.

What you can do this week: Look up any upcoming rewilding events or global days and plan a social post or newsletter that aligns with the larger theme. Reach out to a peer to co-create a synchronized post or campaign. Let us know about your upcoming events!

Herd of Caribou, photo credit: Rigo Olvera from Pexels

• Reach Out Beyond The Movement: Expand our collective influence by connecting with diverse sectors of society and engaging people who might not typically get involved. Make it a habit to introduce yourself to influencers in different spheres (like LinkedIn Top Voices) to broaden the conversation and impact.

What you can do this week: Follow or connect with two influencers outside of rewilding (e.g., sustainability, climate action) and leave a thoughtful comment or share one of their posts to initiate dialogue.

• Know Your Audience: To inspire others to get involved, take the time to understand their perspectives and interests. Don’t just ask them to share your message; show them why it matters to them and why they’d want to support the cause. Understanding your audience is key to building meaningful connections.

What you can do this week: Identify one event or campaign you would like to get support from and identify one person or group to share it with. Share a ‘one-pager’ about your project, how it would align with their values or interests, and tailor a message specifically for them.

• Share What Works: Within the rewilding movement, there are plenty of examples of success, in and out of the field of communications, and so we should take note and share these. Take some time to dwell on what has worked for you, e.g., scroll back through your feed and find the posts, write-ups, collaborations, photos that worked. Is there a pattern?

What you can do this week: Revisit two past successful campaigns or posts, analyze why they performed well, and share those insights with others through a social post or in a team meeting. Let us know at the Global Rewilding Alliance know, too, so we can combine our knowledge for more impact!

Thank you, and what next?

One of the many reasons why we love these meetings is the feeling that everyone involved enjoys them, and goes away from the hour feeling inspired and energised.

We aim to provide value from these meetings and explore how we can better our communications when talking about rewilding. There is a lot we can learn from each other; our Alliance convenes many different organisations with a diverse set of skills. Learning from each other’s mistakes and successes can really help the movement as a whole.

If you are active in rewilding and would like to become part of our Global Rewilding Communicators Network, please get in touch with our team at – we look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for your inspiring energy! We couldn’t be more proud to be a part of this growing movement!

Mark Your Calendar

The Global Rewilding Communicators Network will meet every couple of months. Next one will be: Monday 16th December 2024 at 4pm CET.

See you there!