Why encouraging nature connectedness across the generations is so important

A recent publication argues for urgent action to increase nature connection in society, both to address the environmental crisis and for people’s and nature’s wellbeing. The most effective approaches to doing this, according to the study, undertaken by Professor Miles Richardson of the University of Derby, are introducing children to nature at an early age and greening urban environments. Children are naturally fascinated by nature, but maintaining this through childhood with parents passing on nature connection to their children is key. Increasing the time we all spend in nature every day is also important.

This study explored how urbanisation and changes in the opportunities to engage with nature and how parents pass on interest in nature to their children have influenced nature connectedness within society over the last 200 years. The authors used a model to project historical trends in nature connectedness into the future. One of the main findings of the study was that a key factor in the decline in nature connectedness has been the loss of transmission of nature engagement from one generation to the next. An increase in urban green spaces and enhanced nature engagement is unlikely to be sufficient to reverse the current trends, according to the authors. However, more transformative interventions that involve strengthening how parents pass on nature connectedness to their children could reverse these trends. This requires making nature connectedness a key component of children’s education and family life, and promoting an understanding among society that human well-being depends on a healthy natural environment.

Richardson estimates the need for a 10-fold increase in urban green spaces and time spent in nature. These goals may not be that difficult to achieve, given the low bar at present. In addition, introducing children to nature at a young age and helping parents demonstrate and promote nature-oriented behaviours would help nurture lasting nature connectedness in individuals and society as a whole. Richardson encouragingly detected a trend in the right direction with the use of nature words in books being on the increase over the last 30 years, Furthermore, the authors’ research suggests that with the introduction of transformative enough measures, recovery of nature connectedness would become self-sustaining from 2050 onwards.