Overview
Fauna & Flora is an international wildlife conservation charity working in nearly 50 countries on over 120 projects aimed at saving nature, in collaboration with their conservation partners.
As part of this work, they recognise that the carbon market — a system that rewards countries and communities for protecting forests and reducing carbon emissions — is often explained in complex, technical terms, making it difficult for local and Indigenous communities most affected by deforestation to access or understand.
Here’s how we at Alternative View Studios worked with Fauna & Flora to use the power of animation to bridge the gap, simplifying this complicated information and making it accessible, engaging, and impactful.
The problem
REDD+ (the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in developing countries framework) creates a financial value for the carbon stored in forests by offering incentives for developing countries to avoid emissions and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. In other words, it’s designed to reward governments and communities for maintaining their forests in a standing and intact state.
While REDD+ offers opportunities for conservation and community benefit, it also poses risks if it’s poorly understood or applied as a “one-size-fits-all” solution. Without clear and culturally relevant information available, communities may struggle to make informed choices, risk exclusion, or miss out on their rights and potential benefits.
The solution
To address this challenge, Fauna & Flora sought a storytelling approach that could cut through complexity while remaining respectful. Together, we created an animation to introduce the carbon market to Indigenous and local communities across West and Central Africa, empowering them to understand both its opportunities and risks by:
- Simplifying technical concepts — ‘carbon’, ‘carbon markets’, ‘REDD+’ — without being too simplistic. The animation had to be engaging and culturally sensitive.
- Providing a balanced narrative, acknowledging both the potential benefits and collateral risks of carbon markets.
We always work collaboratively with our clients. Over thirty years of experience has taught us that the best outcomes are achieved by taking time to listen and fully understand their goals, blending our expert, creative, and honest advice with great communication. It’s essential to ask the right questions and welcome clients’ input at every stage, ensuring they feel like partners in the creative process.
Working closely with Fauna & Flora, we began by understanding their mission and the purpose behind the project — to create an animation that introduced the carbon market to local and Indigenous communities in a clear, accessible, and culturally respectful way. By combining creative visuals with a carefully crafted storyline and high-quality production, we ensured a smooth, collaborative process that aligned Fauna & Flora’s subject expertise and audience insight with our storytelling and design experience.
How we approached the project
- Research and consultation: We worked with a Fauna & Flora specialist in governance, equity, and climate to ensure accuracy and clarity, while also engaging community representatives to capture cultural context and address potential communication barriers.
- Script and storytelling: The script was co-developed with community stakeholders to ensure language, tone, and values were appropriate. The script drew on African storytelling traditions, using metaphors that resonated locally.
- Design and animation: To maintain cultural relevance, the design process used reference images from Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This imagery use ensured that characters, settings, and environments felt relatable to the target audiences, strengthening trust and comprehension.
- Feedback and revision: Early versions were shown to community groups for feedback, focusing on criteria areas of clarity, cultural sensitivity and ethical reflection (e.g. avoiding stereotypes).
- Distribution: The final animation has been used in workshops and through networks at partner NGOs. The animation was initially created specifically for a project in Guinea, but the Government of a neighbouring country, Liberia, has since requested its use for community engagement.
Reflections
Charity feedback
Athena Caron, Technical Specialist – Governance, Communities rights – Forest Conservation at Fauna & Flora said:
“We believe that animated videos are the best way to engage with forest communities by making rights-based information accessible, engaging, and inclusive.
We are delighted with the outcome and have received positive feedback from community members, as well as from government agencies and other civil society organisations.
Many have requested access to the videos and are now using them as engagement tools in forums and meetings with local communities and stakeholders. The reach has exceeded our initial expectations, as we also ensured public access for sharing the videos.”
Top takeaways
What we learnt
- Start with clarity: invest time to understand the core message and who it’s for.
- Talk to experts: for specialist subjects, consult practitioners to ensure accuracy, whether in the technical aspects of your story or, in this case, cultural matters.
- Pay attention to the smallest of details: small choices in script, visuals, and sound make a big difference.
Every project teaches you something new, and you carry that learning into the next.
Why animation?
- Ability to simplify complex, technical messages into clear, memorable visuals.
- Makes content accessible to non-technical audiences.
- Offers flexibility to represent diversity and inclusion without the logistical challenges or the practical and ethical difficulties of filming real people.
- Builds emotional engagement, helping audiences understand both opportunities and risks.
- Combines sound, visuals, and narration to create a mixed-media experience that can strengthen emotional impact and accessibility.
- Improves information retention — research shows people remember visual and auditory messages more effectively when combined.
- Adapts easily across formats (e.g. social media clips, presentations, workshops), extending reach and lifespan, making them cost-effective.
- Acts as a powerful engagement tool, sparking discussion and curiosity.
Where to start?
Clarify your purpose:
Define what the animation should achieve — awareness, education, behaviour change, or fundraising.
Know your audience:
Identify your target audience (eg young people, professionals, the general public) and tailor your visuals, tone, and language accordingly.
Define your message:
Focus on one clear message. If you need more messages, only deliver two or three at most.
Choose your style:
Select an animation style and tone that match your audience and message.
Prepare a clear brief:
Include aims, audience, key messages, duration, tone, style, brand guidelines, references, and any cultural or legal considerations.
Read more about how to create an animation for a charity or non-profit organisation and watch the Fauna & Flora animation.
Image credit: Alternative View Studios and Fauna & Flora.
