About us
As conservation storytellers we’ve spent nearly ten years working with conservation organisations of all shapes and sizes, creating media both inhouse and on contract. We’ve worked with large global organisations, and small local grassroots organisations, helping them share their stories and build credibility. In all cases we’ve seen that these organisations have pressing needs when it comes to good quality multimedia storytelling.
Mana Meadows
Photographer, Writer, Communications Specialist
An experienced photographer and writer specializing in photojournalism, documentary storytelling, and communications consulting within the conservation sector, Mana Meadows brings 18 years of multimedia newsroom and editorial communication experience across local and international publications to her work in conservation communications and storytelling. Mana applies her extensive experience in editorial project management as well as a broad knowledge of conservation communications to inform her work at Conservation Storytelling.
Matthew Blair
Filmmaker, Director, Social Development Practitioner
With a background as a social practitioner working in conservation livelihoods and human-wildlife coexistence, Matt combines his experience with his skills as a visual artist to creatively express his feelings for Africa, through storytelling and film. Through both aspects of his work, Matt has deep insight into both Zambia and Zimbabwe's conservation landscapes. He works as a field collaborator with productions to help them achieve their assignment goals – whether it is a particular shot, sequence or story.
How it started...
Podcasts + Blog
Through our own film and photojournalism work with various conservation organisations, we were constantly inspired by many of the people we met. We wanted to have a platform where we could explore more surrounding these field stories – and ultimately open it up to further conservation conversations. And so came the podcasts and the blog.
Helping Conservation Organisation tell their own Stories
At the same time, also through our field work, we realised there needed to be more ways for conservation organisations to share their own stories given the budget constraints many of them faced when it came to hiring in professionals. And so we wanted to find sustainable ways in which small grassroots conservation organisations could tell their stories – be it through hiring in professional storytellers, or through building up inhouse capacity. And so there came our patreon platforms and our conservation storytelling workshops.
Patreon + Other funding models
As much as we wanted to create these stories, doing work for free doesn't make our business sustainable, and it doesn't help our already struggling creative industry and other freelancers out there who are trying to earn a fair living creating this niche and specialised work. How could we meet the needs of conservation organisations, pay ourselves fairly (and eventually other creatives) and produce high-quality impactful work that shared vital conservation stories and created change? To address this, we have developed an innovative funding model that allows us to subsidise conservation projects while staying fair for the storytelling creative and also maintaining high production value. To learn more please click here.
Developing African conservation storytellers
There is a big shortage of young African conservation storytellers – and older ones if we’re honest. Accessing many conservation stories involves heavy mileage to remote places where conditions are rustic and locations often difficult and even dangerous to navigate, especially for those with no prior exposure to it. Add to that how hard it is to be paid as a creative anyway, and there are many barriers to entry.
How: For now we're starting small: one-on-one remote media mentorships, paid field-work internships whenever we can arrange them, long-term fellowships, as well as subsided and pro-bono workshops which build in-house capacity on site. We are currently working on plans to further develop this and create longer-term partnerships and on-site internships with conservation organisations. Stay tuned for updates on this and if you are a conservation organisation or conservation storyteller who would like to find out more, sign up for our newsletter here.