Staffers from two local conservation agencies have applied to be campaign managers for the two-year Pride Campaign program that will be launched tentatively upon acceptance of their applications in June next year.
They are Jihan Buniag of the Division of Environmental Quality and Leilani Deleon Guerrero, Mariana Islands Nature Alliance’s part-time campaign manager.
The Pride Campaign inspires people to take pride in terrestrial and marine resources that make their community unique. It targets a specific site where partners can share learning and serve as a network for broader change.
The local program, according to MINA executive director Sam Sablan, is still in the planning stage. The CNMI, she said, will focus on “ridge to reef”: from terrestrial to marine resources conservation.
Buniag will handle the campaign for terrestrial resources while Deleon Guerrero will take care of marine resources focusing on awareness of marine protected areas.
Sablan, in an interview yesterday, said the program will also allow Buniag and Deleon Guerrero to earn master’s degree in conservation. Their training in social marketing will also earn them certification.
Sablan and Micronesia Challenge chairwoman Fran Castro will be their mentors.
The CNMI’s participation in the Rare Pride Campaign aims to build island resiliency, he added.
The goal is to reduce the impact on the coral reef which is vital to the marine eco-system.
The campaign managers will reach out to people to support protected areas as well as rain water management as it relates to sediment runoff.
The end result is that the campaign managers will have considerably deeper experience and education in social marketing for conservation actions.
Among the campaign managers’ tasks is to think of something unique and promote it through social marketing.
According to its website, Rare and its partners in more than 50 countries, including the U.S., Mexico, the Philippines, Indonesia and China, “are committed to design conservation programs that benefit both people and nature — ensuring that change is embraced and sustained.”
