Understanding and promoting nature connectedness: A human ecological perspective

Abstract

People's subjective sense of their relationship with nature – or nature connectedness – is consistently found to relate to both well-being and pro-environmental values and behaviors. Yet human perceptions of their relationships with the rest of nature are complex and, in many cases, reflect cultural beliefs and historical legacies. In this paper we identify a tension within the research literature on nature connectedness and associated efforts to understand, measure, and promote nature connectedness. The tension is between what we describe as (1.) human exceptionalist perspectives, which envision nature as the absence of humans, and (2.) human ecological perspectives, which understand humans as part of nature. We offer three main interrelated recommendations for a more concertedly human ecological perspective: (1.) to move away from a focus on exposure to nature toward a greater emphasis on engagement with nature, (2.) to learn more about the positive associations between feeling connected with nature and feelings of connection with other collectivities (e.g., sense of community), and (3.) to emphasize everyday engagement with nature in specific nearby places, and the associations between nature connectedness and feeling connected to place (e.g., place attachment/sense of place). Our aim is to enhance clarity and specificity about the concept of nature connectedness, which may improve efforts to promote it and realize its associated benefits to humans, non-humans, and their shared ecologies.