Human-nature connectedness as a pathway to sustainability: A global meta-analysis.

Gladys Barragan‐Jason,Claire De Mazancourt,Michel Loreau,Camille Parmesan,Michael C Singer

doi:10.1111/conl.12852

Abstract

Internationally agreed sustainability goals are being missed. Here, we conduct global meta‐analyses to assess how the extent to which humans see themselves as part of nature—known as human–nature connectedness (HNC)—can be used as a leverage point to reach sustainability. A meta‐analysis of 147 correlational studies shows that individuals with high HNC had more pronature behaviours and were significantly healthier than those with low HNC. A meta‐analysis of 59 experimental studies shows significant increases in HNC after manipulations involving contact with nature and mindfulness practices. Surprisingly, this same meta‐analysis finds no significant effect of environmental education on HNC. Thus, HNC is positively linked to mind‐sets that value sustainability and behaviours that enhance it. Further, we argue that HNC can be enhanced by targeted practices, and we identify those most likely to succeed. Our results suggest that enhancing HNC, via promotion of targeted practices, can improve sustainability and should be integrated into conservation policy.

Highlights

Anthropogenic climate change and biodiversity loss are major threats to non- human living beings and to our own survival[1,3,8,9]
We document a potential reason for this failure and show how the extent to which humans see themselves as part of nature – known as human-nature connectedness (HNC) – can be used as a leverage point for increasing public engagement towards sustainability targets
These results suggest that enhancing HNC, via promotion of targeted practices, can improve sustainability

Summary

Main Text

Anthropogenic climate change and biodiversity loss are major threats to non- human living beings and to our own survival[1,3,8,9]. We provide, for the first time, a robust, coherent and global synthesis of the HNC literature with separate meta-analyses of experimental and correlational studies (Extended data Fig. 1 and Extended data Table 1) This allows us to identify practices that have the potential for increasing HNC, and investigate whether HNC is a key element of sustainability, in particular nature conservation and human welfare. Our meta-analyses robustly show that the extent to which people feel part of the natural world can be enhanced by very simple interventions involving contact with nature and mindfulness practices, at least for industrialized cultures that form the bulk of studies They show that validated HNC indices are positively linked to human welfare and nature conservation. Accumulation of knowledge about cultural and developmental norms and values in diverse societies, both traditional and industrial, should assist in building international environmental and educational policies and empowering citizens and governments to take actions and achieve sustainable targets at a global scale

Methods summary

Findings

Methods