Abstract
It can be difficult for people to perform the behaviors necessary to address sustainability challenges because selfish actions are often more appealing than choices that benefit nature and future generations. Although many useful approaches to pro-environmentalism focus on strengthening relatively simple bivariate relations (e.g., nature connectedness and community-based conservation), we propose that more effective outcomes can be realized by combining three mutually reinforcing elements that support sustainability. Specifically, we outline our Triadic Framework, which focuses on the integration of nature, communities, and belief systems with each other and within people’s self-concepts. In addition to emphasizing the shared overlap among these reciprocal elements, this framework stresses that greater integration of one’s sense of self with these elements will heighten personal motivations to perform sustainable actions. Our paper examines (1) the interconnections among nature, communities, and belief systems and (2) how these three elements can be interrelated and enmeshed in people’s self-concepts to produce greater commitment to conservation. Finally, we describe a real-world example of the Triadic Framework used effectively to promote conservation of mature forests in the Western Ghats of India, and we outline ways for others to leverage this framework to address everyday sustainability challenges.
Highlights
We presented the Triadic Framework to explore how nature, communities, and belief systems can be interconnected and enmeshed with the self-concept to foster sustainability
This approach builds on established field conservation work and leverages literatures from psychology and biology, which include vetted pro-environmental methods and approaches such as nature connectedness and community-based conservation
Communities and belief systems often receive less attention than nature in pro-environmental efforts because people are understandably focused on preserving nature, and the Triadic Framework encourages an active consideration of these sometimes neglected elements
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Sustainability is challenging because people are often drawn to selfish behaviors with specific short-run benefits (e.g., profits, convenience) rather than pursuing actions with broad outcomes that serve collective, long-term interests [1,2] To respond to these dynamics, we propose integrating nature, communities, and belief systems into the selfconcept, which is people’s psychological understanding of themselves (e.g., their traits, relationships, group identities, defining attributes) and the organization of that self-relevant knowledge [3,4]. We discuss several approaches that have encouraged conservation efforts, and we describe our Triadic Framework, which integrates and synthesizes several approaches that include combinations of nature, communities, belief systems, and self-knowledge into a comprehensive, interconnected approach to promote sustainability.
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