Background
The global urban population has increased rapidly during the last century. It is estimated that 68% of people will reside in urban areas by 2050 (United Nations, 2018). It is widely believed that people living in cities have fewer and poorer experiences of natural environments, driven by the loss of opportunity to experience nature and a reduced emotional connection with nature (Soga & Gaston, 2016). Of particular concern is how the loss of experiences of nature could result in changes in health and wellbeing, emotions, attitudes and behaviour toward nature. People are less likely to receive health and wellbeing benefits (Keniger et al., 2013; Shanahan et al., 2015), less likely to perceive and value the benefits from such interactions (Bixler et al., 2002) and less motivated to want to engage with and conserve it (Wells & Lekies, 2006; Thompson et al., 2008). As a result, the loss of human-nature interactions has increasingly been viewed both as a major public-health issue (Shanahan et al., 2015) and as a fundamental obstacle towards reversing global environmental degradation (Miller, 2005; Balmford & Cowling, 2006).
Given that conservation problems are ultimately caused by humans, solutions to reverse these waves of environmental degradation and species extinction crisis must involve facilitating change in human attitudes and behaviour. As such, my PhD aims to extend this knowledge through understanding how nature experiences should be enhanced towards delivering wellbeing benefits and nurturing pro-environmental attitude and behaviour in people.
Aims
- Investigate the role of experiences of nature in delivering health and wellbeing benefits, and nurturing conservation concern.
- Investigate the relationship between experiences of nature and conservation concern.
- Investigate the relationship between biodiversity and wellbeing benefits received.
Methodology
Use of a national survey, field biodiversity surveys and an experimental set-up. The national survey will acquire information on urban residents’ experiences of nature, measures of their physical and mental health and strength of human-nature connection. The field surveys will quantify opportunities for experiences of nature in an urban landscape, and investigate if this aligns will self-reported experiences of nature. The experimental set-up will manipulate biodiversity levels and investigate how this affects human wellbeing.
Expected outcomes
A contribution of knowledge that can be applied towards (i) designing effective pathways that will deliver health and wellbeing benefits from experiencing nature; and (ii) facilitate attitudinal and behavioural change towards being more pro-environmental.
References
Balmford, A., & Cowling, R. M. (2006). Fusion or failure? The future of conservation biology. Conservation Biology, 20(3), 692-695.
Bixler, R. D., Floyd, M. F., & Hammitt, W. E. (2002). Environmental socialization: Quantitative tests of the childhood play hypothesis. Environment and behavior, 34(6), 795-818.
Keniger, L. E., Gaston, K. J., Irvine, K. N., & Fuller, R. A. (2013). What are the benefits of interacting with nature? International journal of environmental research and public health, 10(3), 913-935.
Miller, J. R. (2005). Biodiversity conservation and the extinction of experience. Trends in ecology & evolution, 20(8), 430-434.
Shanahan, D. F., Lin, B. B., Gaston, K. J., Bush, R., & Fuller, R. A. (2015). What is the role of trees and remnant vegetation in attracting people to urban parks?. Landscape Ecology, 30(1), 153-165.
Soga, M., & Gaston, K. J. (2016). Extinction of experience: the loss of human–nature interactions. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 14(2), 94-101.
Thompson, C. W., Aspinall, P., & Montarzino, A. (2008). The childhood factor: Adult visits to green places and the significance of childhood experience. Environment and Behavior, 40(1), 111-143.
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. (2018). World urbanization prospects: the 2018 revision. New York (Accessed on 3rd February 2019).
Wells, N. M., & Lekies, K. S. (2006). Nature and the life course: Pathways from childhood nature experiences to adult environmentalism. Children Youth and Environments, 16(1), 1-24.
Acknowledgements
National University of Singapore (Carrasco Bioecon Lab)
Australian Government Research Training Scholarship
Hidden Vale Wildlife Project Research Support Funding