Human-nature Connection Research Articles

Tree cover is crucial but riparian areas provide a strategic focus for preserving an urban avoider in a fragmented urban ecosystem

ABSTRACT Local native species that decline in response to urbanisation are often classified as ‘urban avoiders’. Their decline drives the biotic homogenisation seen in cities but the characterisation of these species as urban avoiders may discourage efforts to conserve them in urban landscapes. We used gradient analysis and species distribution modelling to examine habitat availability and fragmentation along an entire urban-forest gradient for a representative urban avoider – the Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis). Gradient analysis had utility in quantifying threats for this species but species distribution modelling better highlighted conservation opportunities in the landscape. The amount of suitable habitat declined with increasing urbanisation whilst fragmentation increased. Towards the city centre, habitat clustered around major waterways. Riparian networks showed clear potential to facilitate the restoration of connectivity between urban and fringing habitat and we identify ‘missing links’ in this network – key opportunities for habitat restoration. Riparian vegetation escapes development, is the preferred habitat for many species, including humans, and can serve as the logical architecture on which to focus conservation efforts. Restoring habitat along riparian networks in cities can build comprehensive and fully connected biotic infrastructure that facilitates human-nature connections and conserves local native species diversity.

Understanding Human-Nature Connections Through Landscape Socialization.

Understanding the landscape socialization underpinning the human–nature relationship is essential because it can contribute to assisting us to reconnect with nature. Reconnecting to nature is increasingly recognized as positively contributing to health and well-being. This study aimed to understand people’s connections with nature through landscape socialization under different land use policies. The study assumed that social values, as perceived by residents, facilitates their landscape socialization. Using a questionnaire measuring sense of community and the Social Values for Ecosystem Services application as analytical tools, the study assessed how residents with varying educational attainment, sense of community, and grounded occupation differ in identifying with conservation- and recreation-oriented policy interventions. The results demonstrated the role of landscape socialization in how people connect with nature, and the landscape socialization as a result of long-term policy interventions may exert substantial effects on residents’ social values across various spatial scales. The results deepen the general understanding of system leverage points for creating inner connections to nature which can aid sustainability transformation.

A Theoretical Framework for Bolstering Human-Nature Connections and Urban Resilience via Green Infrastructure

Demand for resources and changing structures of human settlements arising from population growth are impacting via the twin crises of anthropogenic climate change and declining human health. Informed by documentary research, this article explores how Urban Resilience Theory (URT) and Human-Nature Connection Theory (HNCT) can inform urban development that leverages urban green infrastructure (UGI) to mitigate and meditate these two crises. The findings of this article are that UGI can be the foundation for action to reduce the severity and impact of those crises and progress inclusive and sustainable community planning and urban development. In summary, the URT promotes improvement in policy and planning frameworks, risk reduction techniques, adaptation strategies, disaster recovery mechanisms, environmentally sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel energy, the building of social capital, and integration of ecologically sustainable UGI. Further, the HNCT advocates pro-environmental behaviors to increase the amount and accessibility of quality remnant and restored UGI to realize the human health benefits provided by nature, while simultaneously enhancing the ecological diversity and health of indigenous ecosystems. The synthesis of this article postulates that realizing the combined potential of URT and HNCT is essential to deliver healthy urban settlements that accommodate projected urban population growth towards the end of the 21st-century.

Enabling Relationships with Nature in Cities

Limited exposure to direct nature experiences is a worrying sign of urbanization, particularly for children. Experiencing nature during childhood shapes aspects of a personal relationship with nature, crucial for sustainable decision-making processes in adulthood. Scholars often stress the need to ‘reconnect’ urban dwellers with nature; however, few elaborate on how this can be achieved. Here, we argue that nature reconnection requires urban ecosystems, with a capacity to enable environmental learning in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains, i.e., learning that occurs in the head, heart and hands of individuals. Drawing on environmental psychology, urban ecology, institutional analysis and urban planning, we present a theoretical framework for Human–Nature Connection (HNC), discuss the importance of nurturing HNC for children, elaborate on the role of property-rights and the importance of creating collective action arenas in cities for the promotion of urban resilience building. As values and environmental preconceptions underly environmental behavior, there are limits to achieving HNC in cities, as presumptive sentiments toward nature not always are positive. We end by discussing the role of new digital technologies in relation to HNC, and conclude by summarizing the major points brought forward herein, offering policy recommendations for HNC as a resilience strategy that can be adopted in cities throughout the world.

Understanding human–nature connections through value networks: the case of ancient wood-pastures of Central Romania

Scattered woody vegetation generates multiple socio-economic and environmental benefits to the rural communities. Disregarding values associated with woody vegetation on pastures can decouple individuals from traditional management practices, resulting in the loss of biodiversity-rich farming landscapes. Here we employ semi-structured interviews and network analysis to understand the value networks attributed to scattered mature and large old trees in traditional wood-pastures of Central Romania. In our approach, values connect people to trees as well as other people when all share the same appreciation for trees. Farmers assigned 18 values to the scattered mature and large old trees on wood-pastures. Mature trees were appreciated mainly for their tangible benefits. The removal of a single value (i.e., shade value for livestock) decoupled a large proportion of farmers from the mature tree value network. Conversely, large old trees were appreciated for their socio-cultural values (e.g., identity, history). For these trees, the removal of individual socio-cultural values decoupled a relatively small number of people from the network. We suggest that the adoption of a value network approach to understanding multifunctional farming landscapes such as wood-pastures is important because it allows for (1) the understanding of the connections between people and landscape features (e.g., trees) as well as between people (i.e., through sharing the same values for trees), (2) the inclusion of values in the social–ecological monitoring projects and the understanding of the role of various local initiatives and land ownership forms in shaping the value network, and (3) facilitating the understanding of the circumstances of how formal regulatory policies may influence the multifunctional farming landscape as a social–ecological system.

The erosion of relational values resulting from landscape simplification

ContextThe global trend of landscape simplification for industrial agriculture is known to cause losses in biodiversity and ecosystem service diversity. Despite these problems being widely known, status quo trajectories driven by global economic growth and changing diets continue to lead to further landscape simplification.ObjectivesIn this perspective article, we argue that landscape simplification has negative consequences for a range of relational values, affecting the social-ecological relationships between people and nature, as well as the social relationships among people. A focus on relational values has been proposed to overcome the divide between intrinsic and instrumental values that people gain from nature.ResultsWe use a landscape sustainability science framing to examine the interconnections between ecological and social changes taking place in rural landscapes. We propose that increasingly rapid and extreme landscape simplification erodes human-nature connectedness, social relations, and the sense of agency of inhabitants—potentially to the point of severe erosion of relational values in extreme cases. We illustrate these hypothesized changes through four case studies from across the globe. Leaving the links between ecological, social-ecological and social dimensions of landscape change unattended could exacerbate disconnection from nature.ConclusionA relational values perspective can shed new light on managing and restoring landscapes. Landscape sustainability science is ideally placed as an integrative space that can connect relevant insights from landscape ecology and work on relational values. We see local agency as a likely key ingredient to landscape sustainability that should be actively fostered in conservation and restoration projects.

Human-Nature Connection And Mental Health: What Do We Know So Far?

The rapid deterioration of both the natural environment and mental health calls attention to investigate the link between their parallel decline. Anticipating the need for an analysis of the same, the present paper attempts to summarise the literature covering human-nature connection and its implications for mental health in terms of research, therapy and intervention. The papers reviewed are organised under three sections. The first section delineates the effects of nature exposure on health and conceptualises the various nature-based therapies and techniques in literature. The second section includes the literature on Nature Deficit Disorder- a term, given by Richard Louv, referring to the collective consequences of disconnect with nature among today’s children. Finally, the third section includes evidences that support rebuilding the connection through outdoor education and the importance of turning to indigenous ways of teaching for a better impact.

Indigenous and local knowledge in environmental management for human-nature connectedness: a leverage points perspective

ABSTRACT Indigenous peoples are key actors for environmental management because they hold valuable indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) for the sustainable stewardship of nature. However, the consideration of ILK in environmental management is still limited. We explore how environmental government institutions in Colombia have involved indigenous communities in 2212 environmental management projects between 2004 and 2015. Only 1% of these projects involved indigenous peoples as main actors. We applied the Leverage Points (LP) perspective in a content analysis to identify ‘where’ and ‘how’ these projects promote transformative changes within indigenous territories. Moreover, we investigated the interactions between projects targeting shallow and deep LP using cluster analysis. Our results show that these projects mainly seek to improve the well-being of indigenous peoples and consider ILK in their interventions, which suggests changes in deep LP. Additionally, these projects usually combined interventions targeting both shallow and deep LP while using ILK to improve environmental management practices (e.g., Life Plans) and developing participatory land-use planning in the indigenous territories. We argue that the involvement of ILK in environmental management can lead to stronger human–nature connectedness and thus to more successful conservation policies. However, this involvement is still at an early stage in Colombia.

A relational turn for sustainability science? Relational thinking, leverage points and transformations

ABSTRACT In sustainability science, revising the paradigms that separate humans from nature is considered a powerful ‘leverage point’ in pursuit of transformations. The coupled social-ecological and human-environment systems perspectives at the heart of sustainability science have, in many ways, enhanced recognition across academic, civil, policy and business spheres that humans and nature are inextricably connected. However, in retaining substantialist assumptions where ‘social’ and ‘ecological’ refer to different classes of entity that interact, coupled systems perspectives insist on the inextricability of humans and nature in theory, while requiring researchers to extricate them in practice – thus inadvertently reproducing the separation they seek to repair. Consequently, sustainability researchers are increasingly drawing on scholarship from the ‘relational turn’ in the humanities and the social sciences to propose a paradigm shift for sustainability science: away from focusing on interactions between entities, towards emphasizing continually unfolding processes and relations. Yet there remains widespread uncertainty about the origins, promises and challenges of using relational approaches. In this paper, we identify four themes in relational thinking – continually unfolding processes; embodied experience; reconstructing language and concepts; and ethics/practices of care – and highlight the ways in which these are being drawn on in sustainability science. We conclude by critically discussing how relational approaches might contribute to (i) a paradigm shift in sustainability science, and (ii) transformations towards sustainability. Relational approaches foster more dynamic, holistic accounts of human-nature connectedness; more situated and diverse knowledges for decision-making; and new domains and methods of intervention that nurture relationships in place and practice.

The Role of Social Relational Emotions for Human-Nature Connectedness.

Little is known about the psychological processes through which people connect to nature. From social psychology, we know that emotions play an essential role when connecting to others. In this article, we argue that social connectedness and connectedness to nature are underpinned by the same emotions. More specifically, we propose that social relational emotions are crucial to understanding the process through which humans connect to nature. Beside other emotions, kama muta (Sanskrit: being moved by love) might play a particular crucial role when connecting to nature. Future research should consider the role of social relational emotions in human-nature relationships.

Human-nature relationships in context. Experiential, psychological, and contextual dimensions that shape children's desire to protect nature.

What relationship with nature shapes children’s desire to protect the environment? This study crosses conventional disciplinary boundaries to explore this question. I use qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse experiential, psychological, and contextual dimensions of Human-Nature Connection (HNC) before and after children participate in a project of nature conservation. The results from the interviews (N = 25) suggest that experiential aspects of saving animals enhance children’s appreciation and understanding for animals, nature, and nature conservation. However, the analysis of children’s psychological HNC (N = 158) shows no statistical difference before and after children participate in the project. Analysing the third dimension–children’s contextual HNC–provides further insights. Including children’s contextual relations with home, nature, and city, not only improves the prediction of their desire to work for nature, but also exposes a form of Human-Nature Disconnection (HND) shaped by children’s closeness to cities that negatively influence it. Overall, combining experiential, psychological, and contextual dimensions of HNC provides rich insights to advance the conceptualisation and assessment of human-nature relationships. People’s relationship with nature is better conceived and analysed as systems of relations between mind, body, culture, and environment, which progress through complex dynamics. Future assessments of HNC and HND would benefit from short-term qualitative and long-term quantitative evaluations that explicitly acknowledge their spatial and cultural contexts. This approach would offer novel and valuable insights to promote the psychological and social determinants of resilient sustainable society.

Intention of preserving forest remnants among landowners in the Atlantic Forest: The role of the ecological context via ecosystem services

AbstractUnravelling the psychological processes determining landowners’ support towards forest conservation is crucial, particularly in rural areas of the tropics, where most forest remnants are within private lands. As human–nature connections are known to shape pro‐environmental behaviours, the intention of preserving forest remnants should ultimately be determined by the ecological context people live in.Here, we investigate the pathways through which the ecological context (forest cover), via direct contact with forests and ecosystem services and disservices, influence the psychological antecedents of conservation behaviour (beliefs, attitude and intention of preserving forest remnants). We conceptualized a model based on the Reasoned Action Approach, using the ecological context and these three forest experiences as background factors, and tested the model using Piecewise Structural Equation Modelling. Data were collected through an interview‐based protocol applied to 106 landowners across 13 landscapes varying in forest cover in a consolidated rural region in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.Our results indicate that: (a) ecosystem services are more important than disservices for shaping intention of preserving forests, particularly non‐provisioning services; (b) contact with forest has an indirect effect on intention, by positively influencing the frequency of receiving ecosystem services; (c) people living in more forested ecological contexts have more contact with forests, receive ecosystem services more frequently and, ultimately, have stronger intention of preserving forests.Hence, our study suggests a dangerous positive feedback loop between deforestation, the extinction of forest experiences and impairment of human–nature connections. Local demands across the full range of ecosystem services, the balance between services and disservices and the ecological context people live in should be considered when developing conservation initiatives in tropical rural areas.A freePlain Language Summarycan be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

The impacts of social-ecological system change on human-nature connectedness: A case study from Transylvania, Romania

Contemporary Romania has been subject to several major social and institutional shifts that have had implications for the connectedness of humans with their environment. Four major governance eras have influenced human-nature connections: (1) formal and informal institutional governance after the World Wars and before socialism (before 1947), (2) top-down governance during socialism (1947–1989) and (3) during sovereign state governance and transition to European Union (1990–2006), and (4) multilevel governance since European Union accession (after 2007). We analyzed two cultural landscapes in Transylvania with respect to changes in human-nature connectedness. The two systems were similar at the beginning of the 20th century, but developed differently in their intensity of landscape management in the 21st century. Drawing on 41 semi-structured interviews, we examined changes that influenced landscape management and human-nature connectedness, considering five dimensions of connectedness: material, experiential, emotional, cognitive and philosophical. Material connections have weakened as a result of changes in food production and rising consumerism. Experiential and emotional connections were influenced by socio-economic and landscape management changes. Cognitive connections reflected changes in the knowledge system on the environment. Philosophical connection was influenced by changes in ideologies and globalization. Our findings highlight the central influence of social and institutional change on perceived human-nature connectedness. Understanding this influence provides important pointers for how to reconnect humanity to nature in the coming decades.

Satoumi: Re‐connecting people to nature for sustainable use and conservation of coastal zones

Abstract In addition to the management of marine protected areas, the management of non‐protected areas is integral to sustainable use and conservation of coastal zones. The human–nature connection has drawn increasing attention in the Western society because the disconnect from nature is a root cause of ecological crises and unsustainability. Re‐connecting is a promising avenue. We propose satoumi creation as an approach for the sustainable use and conservation of coastal zones by re‐connecting people to nature. Satoumi is a Japanese term describing a desirable state of coastal zones with enhanced biodiversity and productivity realized by active human intervention. Although satoumi is promising, previous discussions have been narrowly focused on ecosystems. We reconsidered satoumi from a social‐ecological system (SES) perspective to elucidate the full spectrum of its key features. The human–nature connection is an integral part of satoumi. Satoumi engenders relational values in addition to instrumental and intrinsic values. Satoumi as a state is one thing and its creation another. We cannot merely transplant a successful satoumi to other locations. Furthermore, because coastal SESs are complex, systemic transformation into satoumi requires identifying deep leverage points. We propose a certain marine education at schools that could function as a deep leverage point. The education corresponds to the three realms of deep leverage for sustainability transformation: re‐structure, re‐connect and re‐think. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Greening Counseling: Examining Multivariate Relationships Between Ecowellness and Holistic Wellness

Researchers developed the ecowellness construct to draw focus on the human–nature connection in counseling. The authors examined relationships between the EcoWellness Inventory and the Five Factor Wellness Inventory in a study with 749 participants ages 18 to 84. Results provide further support for the significance of ecowellness as a dimension of holistic wellness that merits additional attention in humanistic counseling and research.

EcoWellness: Contextualizing Nature Connection in Traditional Clinical and Educational Settings to Foster Positive Childhood Outcomes

Abstract K-12 educators and health-related professionals in the United States face significant challenges promoting the human-nature connection when working with youth. Policy-mandated priorities r...

Are California Elementary School Test Scores More Strongly Associated With Urban Trees Than Poverty?

Unprecedented rates of urbanization are changing our understanding of the ways in which children build connections to the natural world, including the importance of educational settings in affecting this relationship. In addition to influencing human-nature connection, greenspace around school grounds has been associated with benefits to students’ cognitive function. Questions remain regarding the size of this benefit relative to other factors, and which features of greenspace are responsible for these effects. We conducted a large-scale correlative study subsampling elementary schools (n = 495) in ecologically, socially and economically diverse California. After controlling for common educational determinants (e.g., socio-economic status, race/ethnicity, student teacher ratio, and gender ratio) we found a significant, positive association between test scores and tree and shrub cover within 750 and 1000 m of urban schools. Tree and shrub cover was not associated with test scores in rural schools or five buffers closer to urban schools (10, 50, 100, 300, and 500 m). Two other greenspace variables (NDVI and agricultural area) were not associated with test performance at any of the analyzed buffer distances for rural or urban schools. Minority representation had the largest effect size on standardized test scores (8.1% difference in scores with 2SD difference in variable), followed by tree and shrub cover around urban schools, which had a large effect size (2.9–3.0% at 750 and 1000 m) with variance from minority representation and socioeconomic status (effect size 2.4%) included. Within our urban sample, average tree-cover schools performed 4.2% (3.9–4.4, and 95% CI) better in terms of standardized test scores than low tree-cover urban schools. Our findings support the conclusion that neighborhood-scale (750–1000 m) urban tree and shrub cover is associated with school performance, and indicate that this element of greenspace may be an important factor to consider when studying the cognitive impacts of the learning environment. These results support the design of experimental tests of tree planting interventions for educational benefits.

Biophilic Design in the Built Environment to Improve Well-Being: A Systematic Review of Practices

The built environment is the man-made space including our cities, neighbourhoods, offices, and homes where people live, work and recreate on a daily basis. Several recent research studies have devoted considerable attention to how our built environment affects our health, well-being, and quality of life. The idea of this paper stemmed from a conversation with architecture students after a lecture on healing landscapes. They have been asked to take a photo of the view out of the windows of their rooms for to the following week discussion. The discussion mainly focused on why viewing nature is more favourable and advantageous than viewing buildings. The answer to this question is ‘biophilia’, defined as the inherent human inclination to affiliate with nature. Biophilic design -an extension of biophilia- is an innovative way of design that strives to foster a deep connection with nature in places where we live, work, and learn to induce well-being effect. The present paper seeks to systematically review and address the current practices of biophilic design in interior spaces where people spend most of their time. This paper situates the emerging concept of biophilic interior design and concludes by reflecting upon a conceptual model that enriches and sustains the human-nature connection.

Landscape dimension in the built environment: The spatial operative of an integrated micro agriculture unit

The rapid urbanization creates an increased demand for food supply and security in urban system. The imminent risks stemmed from climate change appeal for a greater effort in an overhaul of the customary practices in the planning and management of the urban systems. Urban centers should accommodate the growing need for green infrastructure and edible landscape; options such as farming alternative has gained interest as a possible solution to the urban-scape and the food production stability for the urban inhabitants. This article presents the systemic approach to building integrated agriculture unit prototype's design thinking and proposed a prototype model allowing the locality and place to be incorporated into the design framework. The research concludes that: (1) in line with human-nature connection and raising its priority level within both design research and design practice should consider the environmental, social, economic and spatial criteria for the design thinking exploration; (2) the design results in a flexible system model of the micro building integrated agriculture unit, allowing the units to fit either indoor or outdoor, as a probable solution suited for the locality and the increasing demand for edible greens; (3) indoor units need further study in integration with the indoor climate control and automation as well as added indoor air purification and sensor functions. (4) Prototype units should be capable of providing locally available edible production and social well-being for the urban system.

Human–nature connectedness as a ‘treatment’ for pro-environmental behavior: making the case for spatial considerations

The degree to which an individual feels connected to the natural world can be a positive predictor of pro-environmental behavior (PEB). This has led to calls to ‘reconnect to nature’ as a ‘treatment’ for PEB. What is not clear is the relationship between where one feels connected to nature and where one acts pro-environmentally. We propose that integrating spatial scale into the conceptualization of these constructs will provide insights into how different degrees of connectedness influence pro-environmental behavior. We discuss trends towards a spatial understanding of human–nature connectedness (HNC) and introduce three archetypes that highlight scalar relationships between scale of connectedness and scale of pro-environmental behavior: (1) equal interactions, (2) embedded interactions, and (3) extended interactions. We discuss potential policy and practice implications of taking a spatially explicit approach to HNC–PEB research, and propose a research agenda for investigating these scalar relationships that can inform nature as a ‘treatment’ intervention.