Beyond knowing nature: Contact, emotion, compassion, meaning, and beauty are pathways to nature connection

Beyond knowing nature: Contact, emotion, compassion, meaning, and beauty are pathways to nature connection

Abstract

Feeling connected to nature has been shown to be beneficial to wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviour. General nature contact and knowledge based activities are often used in an attempt to engage people with nature. However the specific routes to nature connectedness have not been examined systematically. Two online surveys of engagement with, and value of, nature activities structured around the nine values of the Biophila Hypothesis were conducted. Contact, emotion, meaning, and compassion, with the latter mediated by engagement with natural beauty, were predictors of connection with nature, yet knowledge based activities were not. In a third study, a walking intervention with activities operationalising the identified predictors, was found to significantly increase connection to nature when compared to walking in nature alone or walking in and engaging with the built environment. The findings indicate that contact, emotion, meaning, compassion, and beauty are pathways for improving nature connectedness. The pathways also provide alternative values and frames to the traditional knowledge and identification routes often used by organisations when engaging the public with nature.

Introduction

There is a growing realisation that a positive, connected relationship with nature leads to pro-environmental attitudes and wellbeing benefits. Having a positive relationship with nature is an important part of wellbeing, comparable to established factors such as income and education. Just as individual benefits to wellbeing are important, nature connectedness can also be beneficial to wider nature, as it is thought to lead to pro-environmental attitudes and subsequent positive behaviours through a willingness to sacrifice. While the relationships between connectedness with nature, wellbeing and pro-environmental attitudes have been demonstrated, the specific routes to connectedness are still unclear; a full investigation into the actions and practices that lead to a connected relationship is required. This is especially important given that large conservation charities in the United Kingdom including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, The Wildlife Trusts and the UK branch of the World Wildlife Fund are increasingly aware of connection with nature. Further, where organisations have used knowledge and identification of species in the past as a way to engage people with nature, there is now an increasing focus on the best frames and values to use in order to engage the public. Understanding the factors that facilitate increased connection to nature will complement these endeavours and inform moves to increase nature connection for both nature's and human's wellbeing. The present paper identifies the indicators of nature connection before operationalising them as pathways to increase connection with nature. These indicators go beyond activities that simply engage people with nature through knowledge and identification.

Being able to identify the different indicators associated with nature connection is also a good starting point for developing a theoretical account of the pathways to connectedness. Nature connection is subjective, formed through individual experiences, making the development of a theoretical account of the pathways potentially problematic, however a suitable starting point exists within the Biophilia Hypothesis. The nine values of biophilia describe how humanity affiliates with nature. Biophilia has been suggested to function as the innate biological driver for the desire to connect with nature, for the benefits to wellbeing that nature provides. As such, the nine values of biophilia and engagement activities associated with them serve as a suitable starting point for a systematic investigation of the indicators of, and pathways to nature connectedness.