Are youth losing the fundamental value for nature and conservation?

By Ryan Peek

In reading Marks’ recent post on “New Conservation”, I was struck by some of his closing remarks. In particular, “The majority of people now live in urban environments. With this recognition, there has been a rapidly evolving appreciation for the degree to which these urban populations are disconnected from nature and the importance of a connection to nature to support conservation actions. What do we do in urban environments with respect to conserving nature?”

As someone who spent a greater part of my youth outside, I quickly came to appreciate the outdoors both as a place for activities like swimming, fishing, and backpacking as well as an escape, a place of solitude and beauty I would not find anywhere else. Thus my value for nature and the outdoors is quite high, and it isn’t all that surprising given the experiences I had. This value is rooted in how our brains make connections based on the world around us. Recent research shows the mental and physical health benefits for people who spend time outside, including stress reduction, feelings of connectedness, and increased attention spans. Another study using fMRI scans of brain activity in participants viewing nature scenes showed greater activity in regions associated with empathy and love, whereas participants viewing urban environments showed greater amounts of fear and anxiety.
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Recognizing I was fortunate to have access and the support to visit amazing places that were truly wild (I grew up about an hour from Kings Canyon National Park), and the influence it had in my life, I’ve tried to expose my children to as much “nature” as I can. I recently took a walk in a local park here in Davis with my 4 year old son, and we observed all sorts of wildlife: rabbits, turkeys, raptors, even a few chorus frogs. It was wonderful, and he absolutely loved it. But depending on where you live and the privilege you have, these values may be very different, or at least have very different priorities.

Unfortunately, the time this current generation of children spend outdoors has significantly declined compared with previous generations. Furthermore, as part of a survey conducted by The Nature Conservancy in 2011, three in five children stated the reason they didn’t spend more time in Nature was they did not have transportation to natural areas, or there were not natural areas near their homes. And technology is another factor complicating the often limited time children may have to spend outdoors. A study from 2006 found children between the ages of 6 months and 6 years spend an average of 1.5 hours with electronic media on a daily basis, whereas children between the ages of 8 and 18 years spend an average of nearly 6.5 hours
a day with electronic media! We are immersed and though “connected” and “liked”, we continue to further disconnect ourselves from the landscape we inhabit.

This matters in conservation. As an example, a recent discussion in a graduate seminar about conservation planning, there was a discussion about what fundamental conservation objectives were. The exercise is essentially to identify what the essence for a conservation objective might be, by continuing to question “why” until you can no longer answer. Sometimes it is as simple as “I want more fish to catch.” However, sometimes the why may boil down to a value judgment about nature or wilderness. We want to conserve areas “because they are wild” or “because it is beautiful”. So the question we should consider is what happens when the next generation (whether through socioeconomic inequality, lack of exposure, or inundation of technology) no longer values conservation of nature "just because"? How can we better reach and affect youth in urban environments to increase conservation values?

If we want conservation to succeed, we should not define wilderness and nature as places that are too distant to matter, but focus on building and protecting the wild nooks even urban environments can provide. More importantly, we need to address and communicate how important nature is to our wellbeing, in terms of health, safety and services, and that primarily must be done by creating opportunities for people to unplug and escape. To support and prioritize conservation, there must be a strong value rooted in experience and appreciation. ​

A good example of how we advertise wildness in urban environments. Extreme could also be animals that persist or even thrive in urban environments.

Further reading

• http://www.nature.org/newsfeatures/kids-in-nature/youth-and-nature-poll-results.pdf
• https://www.childrenandnature.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CNNEvidenceoftheDeficit.pdf
• http://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/enhance-your-wellbeing/environment/nature-and-us/how-does-nature-impact-our-wellbeing
  
• The Media Family: Electronic media in the lifes of infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their parents. 2006. https://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/7500.pdf
• Lohr, V. (2007). Benefits of nature: What we are learning about why people respond to nature. J. Physiol Anthropol: 26(2), 83.