What is your true value to nature conservation?

A key issue in nature conservation is the low wages that we are paid. But (and this is a big ‘but’) - how can we expect others to value us if we don’t value ourselves? We often moan about how poor conservationists are paid or how difficult it is to fundraise for nature conservation. What if we valued ourselves highly first? Valued our work and our impact to the actual value that it has?

A friend who mentors business women talks about giving value 10 x of that which the client is paying. What is clean air worth to our society? Our clean water? Not natural capital and the valuations that are happening there. But valuing the work itself of our NGOs or the work of our staff. In this abundant world, we are creating a sense of scarcity. Like the way stocks and shares rise and fall based on the value that the buyer thinks a stock has. It is our own valuation of our work that dictates the price. Our own decision to pay our staff specific wages that dictates those wages.

It starts with us to value our staff and our work properly. And it starts with us to value nature conservation properly.

Photo courtesy of Mark Leslie