Audience Mapping Guide

What are Interested and Affected Parties (IAPs)?

Interested/Affected Parties (IAPs) are groups of people, communities, stakeholders, and shareholders that are relevant to environmental issues. In general this is any group of people you think needs to learn about an issue or be involved in decision making on an issue.

Some examples of these groups of people could be:

• Local communities impacted by an environmental issue/conservation intervention
• Organizations seeking to resolve an environmental issue
• Local authorities that need to be contacted for permissions
• Government agencies involved in the issue/intervention
• Researchers investigating the issue/intervention
• Business/Industry causing or impacted by issue/intervention
• …among many

Why do we need to create an IAP Audience Map?

• When trying to communicate effectively about an issue we need to consider who we are communicating with.
• Identifying key audiences relevant to our issue will inform what kinds of communications we should create and how to tailor them so they are most relevant and effective.

Crucial to Successful Communications

• We need to be clear about which audiences we are trying to reach and/or mobilize and where they stand on the focal issue.
• We need information about each IAP group in order to develop messages and tactics that will resonate with them.

How to get started

• Consider groups that are central and peripheral to the issue.

  Ask yourself:

  • Who needs to be involved in the decision making process?
    • What communities are local to the issue?
    • Who are decision makers on this issue?
    • What business/industry may be involved in this issue?
  • Whose lives and communities are currently affected by the issue?
    • Whose lives and communities will be affected by potential solutions to the issue?
  • Who may not be local to the issue, but their behaviors impact the issue?
    • How might this issue tie into the global economy and which consumers need to be aware of the issue?
  • Who might be impacted by the issue and potential solutions in the future?
  • Who is involved in perpetuating the issue?
• Assess each group’s level of awareness and support for the issue/solution.

  Ask yourself:

  • How aware of this issue is each IAP group?
    • On a scale of unaware, to neural, to very aware.
  • How might they feel about the issue?
    • On a scale of having no opinion, to feeling neutral, to having strong opinions.
  • How might they feel about potential solutions?
    • On a scale of having no opinion, to feeling neutral, to having strong opinions.
• Collect culturally relevant information about each IAP group.

  Ask yourself:

  • Does this issue involve land or lifeways that are of cultural importance to this group?
    • Does this issue affect the beliefs and/or religious practices of this group?
  • What language does this group predominantly speak?
    • What are preferred modes of communication for this group?
  • How do the identities of people in this group intersect with this issue?
    • How does this issue intersect with the values of people in this group?
  • What values does this group hold broadly?
    • How might this group relate to and value nature?
  • What relevant local and specialized knowledge does this group possess?
• Collect socioeconomic information about each group.

  Ask yourself:

  • How do people make their livelihoods in communities related to this issue?
    • How might this issue/potential solutions affect this communities’ capacity to make a living?
  • What is the predominant socioeconomic status of this group?
    • How might this issue/potential solutions affect the socioeconomic status of this community?
  • What socioeconomic factors may or may not be in the control of this group?
    • Who might hold power in this issue?
• Identify priorities and concerns of each group.

  Ask yourself:

  • What priorities might community members in this group hold and how might this influence their willingness to engage on the focal issue?
    • How might this issue become a bigger priority in their lives?
  • What concerns might this group have about the issue and/or potential solutions?
    • How might their concerns be addressed?