For South Africa's coastal communities, the risks associated with offshore oil and gas exploration are far from abstract. They threaten livelihoods, marine biodiversity and the industries that depend on a healthy ocean. Yet, communicating these risks to a wider audience requires making an often distant and complex issue feel relevant to people's lives.
South African non-profit organisation WILDTRUST set out to address this challenge through SPOILED, an award-winning documentary produced in collaboration with Love Africa Marketing and The Green Connection.
The film brings the experiences of coastal communities, fishers, activists and other ocean advocates into the forefront, highlighting what's at stake when decisions about South Africa's marine environment are made.
For WILDTRUST's Campaigns and Communications Director, Lauren van Nijkerk, SPOILED highlights an important lesson in conservation communication: facts establish why an issue matters, but connecting with people on a human level can help turn awareness into action.
In this Q&A, van Nijkerk discusses how organisations can communicate complex issues in ways that resonate with audiences and give affected communities a voice, while balancing the urgency of environmental advocacy with credible messaging and opportunities for action.
What role can personal stories and community voices play in helping audiences understand environmental issues that might otherwise feel distant or abstract?
Humanity can be selfish, often paying attention to issues only when they affect us directly. This is especially true when it comes to environmental and marine health, which we too often take for granted, assuming the ocean will continue to provide natural resources indefinitely.
We feel incredibly privileged to have been given the opportunity to share the powerful stories of these ocean warriors, who are standing up to oil and gas giants to protect their livelihoods, their communities and future generations.
The authenticity and emotion with which they tell their stories allow audiences to connect with their experiences, feel empathy and understand the potential impact an oil spill could have — not only on the communities represented by the characters featured in the film, but on our entire coastline: its biodiversity and people, as well as our tourism industry, fisheries and economy.
How can conservation organisations balance the need to communicate the seriousness and urgency of environmental issues with creating stories that audiences can connect with emotionally?
Offshore oil and gas exploration — and the scale of it along our coast — is a foreign concept to most South Africans. After all, when something is "out of sight", it is often out of mind.
I think this film brings the issue home: with an average of 90% of our mainland ocean space being explored by the oil and gas industry, an oil spill or blowout along South Africa's coastline is a very real risk, with potentially catastrophic consequences for our country, our environment, our economy and our people.
Hearing directly from people who depend on a healthy ocean for their livelihoods and to support their families and communities really resonates.
It forces people to confront the difficult potential reality and the risks that offshore oil and gas pose to our entire country — and to ask themselves what they can do to help.
What do you think has made SPOILED resonate with audiences, particularly given the complexity of the conservation issues explored in the film?
I don't think seriousness and emotional storytelling are opposites — the strongest conservation communication brings them together. We need science and evidence to establish why an issue matters and why action is urgent, but facts alone rarely create connection.
The challenge is to translate that evidence into human stories that show what is at stake, who is affected, what people stand to lose and, importantly, what is still possible.
At WILDTRUST, that connection between science and storytelling has been particularly powerful because it brings people — especially coastal communities — into the conservation story, rather than treating nature as something separate from people.
It is also important not to communicate only through crises. If audiences repeatedly hear that everything is disappearing or getting worse, urgency can quickly turn into helplessness. A good story should instead move people through a clear journey: "this matters, this is threatened, but something can be done". That gives audiences agency rather than anxiety.
Authenticity matters too. The people closest to an environmental issue should not simply become characters in an NGO's story; wherever possible, they should have a voice in shaping and telling that story themselves.
Ultimately, the balance is evidence for credibility, emotion for connection, and hope or agency for action. The urgency should be real, but audiences should leave understanding not only what we stand to lose, but also why their attention and action can still make a difference.
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*Image courtesy of contributor and Canva