USA – Boston
WWViews on Biodiversity
On Saturday September 15th 2012, thousands of people around the world took part in a global event: “World Wide Views on Biodiversity”. The project engaged ordinary citizens in 25 countries in the process of policymaking and awareness raising to sustain a living and healthy planet. About hundred citizens in each participating country attended day-long meetings to learn about biodiversity issues, make up their minds about them, and express their views. The meetings started at dawn in the Pacific and continue until dusk in the Americas. All meetings had the same agenda and used the same approach in order to make results comparable and useful for policymakers gathered in October 2012 in India to discuss future policy measures for preserving biological diversity.
WWViews on Biodiversity in Boston – Massachusetts
The University of Massachusetts and the Museum of Science – Boston are the national organisers of the WWViews day in Boston -Massachusetts / USA.
Main Project Manager: David Sittenfeld
Main Project Manager: Gretchen Gano
WWViews Venue
The citizen consultation on international biodiversity politics in Massachusetts took place on September 15th at Museum of Science in Boston.
Results of the WWViews citizen meeting in Boston
Link to the results page
Citizen Recruitment
To get in contact with potential participants, the following strategy/strategies was/were used:
- Sending letters of invitation
- Face-to-face recruitment based on quotas in geographical clusters
- Advertising
- Snowball sampling
Recruitment coordinators used the common strategy of communicating with community organizations that provide services to the populations of interest to place recruitment advertisements and flyers. Some example organizations nationwide are WIC programs, Food Stamp (SNAP) offices, The Head Start Program, GED Programs, local Health and recreation centers, Public Housing Projects, Family Support Groups, Transitional Housing Groups, Churches and other Faithbased Organizations, The Salvation Army.
Site organizers will also reach minority and ethnic groups through media advertising on television, radio and through community listservs and email lists.
How were the participants for the citizen meeting selected?
In order to make the results comparable, the participating citizens of the WWViews meeting around the world were selected according to the same set of criteria.
Site hosts in the four US locations standardized the demographic data and the specific data attributes we recruited for across the four sites to match each state and (in the case of Washington D.C.) the district populations.
The citizens were invited to join the meetings and out of those who signed up for the event, about 180 were selected according to demographics aiming to reflect the distribution of the state population. The main parameters used for the selection were age, gender, residence, education level and occupation. In Massachusetts, the parameters for involvement in environmental organizations also had to be taken under consideration.
Find more photos from the citizen meetings in the US on Flickr
Documentary on the process and the results of World Wide Views on Biodiversity
Information Material for Citizens
World Wide Views on Biodiversity – Information Material for Citizens – Español
World Wide Views on Biodiversity – Information Videos for the Citizens – English
1. Introduction to biodiversity, 2. Biodiversity on land, 3. Biodiversity in the sea, 4. Burden and Benefit Sharing
World Wide Views on Biodiversity – Videos Informativos para los Ciudadanos – Español
1. Introducción a la biodiversidad, 2. Biodiversidad terrestre 3. Biodiversidad en el mar, 4. Responsabilidades y distribución de beneficios