People and Nature最新文献

{"title":"Wildlife farming: Balancing economic and conservation interests in the face of illegal wildlife trade","authors":"Dominic Meeks, Oscar Morton, David P. Edwards","doi":"10.1002/pan3.10588","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10588","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000Demand for wildlife and their products continues to grow, often despite increasingly militarised regulation and consumer awareness campaigns. We review the sustainability, legality and feasibility of wildlife farming of animals, as a potential conservation tool to ensure the development of an equitable and sustainable trade model.\u0000\u0000While there are some positive examples of well‐managed wildlife farming in trade, we identify common themes of misuse including the intentional mislabelling of wild‐caught specimens in global trade and the use of wild‐caught individuals to supplement captive stocks.\u0000\u0000We also highlight the frequent failure to incorporate biological data into management strategies, resulting in the widespread use of species with potentially unfavourable life history traits, which constrain the economic and biological sustainability of wildlife farming programmes.\u0000\u0000We develop a structured decision framework to aid the examination of when wildlife farming may most benefit or hinder species conservation.\u0000\u0000Synthesis and applications. Key opportunities include developing species suitability assessments and removing barriers to legitimate participation with wildlife farming among poor, rural communities. In the absence of management strategies that address the issues of species suitability and accessibility, wildlife farming will continue to place significant strain on wild populations while failing to provide conservation value and sustainable economic returns.\u0000\u0000Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.","PeriodicalId":52850,"journal":{"name":"People and Nature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139524480","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Does aversion to insects affect insecticide use? An elusive answer calls for improved methods in biophobia research","authors":"Moshe Gish, M. Hisano, M. Soga","doi":"10.1002/pan3.10585","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10585","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000Insecticides are commonly used to control insects and other arthropods in homes (hereafter collectively referred to as ‘insects’). Although aversion to insects might encourage the use of insecticides, it is unclear whether such feelings truly influence the decision to use insecticides.\u0000\u0000We investigated the connection between feelings of disgust towards insects and the use of household insecticides. Our aim was to uncover the unexplored emotional drivers of insecticide use, in order to provide insights that might help develop new programmes to reduce exposure to household insecticides.\u0000\u0000We conducted an online survey (n = 2500) that focussed on insecticide use and disgust feelings towards six species commonly found in homes (cockroaches, ants, spiders, mosquitoes, flies and centipedes). Respondents rated their level of disgust towards these species and reported various beliefs and practices related to household insects and insect control.\u0000\u0000Approximately 70% of respondents expressed strong disgust towards these species (ratings of 6 or 7 on a scale of 1–7). More than half (53.3%) reported using aerosol insecticides in their homes in the 6 months prior to the survey.\u0000\u0000Path analyses highlighted several factors that influenced insecticide use, including infestation level, disgust intensity, lack of knowledge about arthropods and aversion to chemicals. However, the observed effect sizes were modest, particularly regarding the influence of disgust on insecticide use, which somewhat constrains our study's contribution to the understanding of the motivators driving household insecticide use.\u0000\u0000We explain how our findings potentially reflect a critical methodological limitation in the standard methods commonly used for measuring aversion in biophobia (fear of nature) research. This limitation originates from the fact that highly aversive animals often provoke extreme reactions from most participants, resulting in a very low data variation that hinders data analysis. We address this concern in the context of our findings and propose potential solutions that could pave the way for future research on how attitudes towards highly aversive animals affect individuals, society, and the relationships between people and nature.\u0000\u0000Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.","PeriodicalId":52850,"journal":{"name":"People and Nature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139619431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding small‐scale private forest owners is a basis for transformative change towards integrative conservation","authors":"M. Tiebel, A. Mölder, Claudia Bieling, Peter Hansen, Tobias Plieninger","doi":"10.1002/pan3.10579","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10579","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000Balancing societal demands on forests is a major challenge in current forest management. Small‐scale private forest owners are an important ownership group that is rarely addressed directly in this discussion. Our study aims to identify and differentiate between private forest owner groups. Based on this, we take a systemic approach and determine leverage points that can be used to foster transformative change towards integrative conservation‐oriented forest management.\u0000\u0000We conducted a survey of 1656 small‐scale private forest owners in northwest Germany within a typical European multi‐ownership landscape and formed three clusters based on their activities.\u0000\u0000While all groups generally perceived nature conservation as important, they differed with regard to their forest management activities. Multiple‐use‐oriented forest owners (45%) were most active, including in terms of conservation measures. Conservation‐oriented owners (25%) mainly focused on passive measures, and conventional owners (30%) showed only a little engagement with conservation‐related activities. Despite the differences, common instruments promoting conservation activities were identified. They included, for example on‐site consultation, information about legal regulations and financial incentives.\u0000\u0000Based on four system characteristics (parameters, feedback, design and intent), we identified leverage points towards transformative change. The deep and thus effective leverage points are changing the discourse, accounting for the heterogeneity of private forest owners as well as for uncertainty related to climate change and adapting measures to local contexts. Furthermore, working towards increasing awareness, knowledge and interest as well as accounting for the desire for autonomy and control are promising pathways for change.\u0000\u0000A holistic transformation of forest policy and management towards integrative conservation is urgently needed to meet the current challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and timber demand. This transformation has to go beyond the adaptation of existing policy instruments and instead focus on systematic and cross‐sectoral changes in the underlying policy orientation, its design and its implementation.\u0000\u0000Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.","PeriodicalId":52850,"journal":{"name":"People and Nature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139618194","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Araucaria bidwillii genomics suggest Indigenous Peoples broadened translocation practices in response to settler colonialism","authors":"M. Fahey, Maurizio Rossetto, Emilie Ens, Ray Kerkhove","doi":"10.1002/pan3.10576","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10576","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000Retracing past anthropogenic dispersal of culturally important taxa offers insights to the biogeographic history of species, as well as the history of the people who interacted with them. Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii Hook.) is a culturally and spiritually significant conifer tree for several Indigenous groups in eastern Australia. Sharing the edible nuts and attending Bunya gatherings is an important way for these groups to maintain their cultural connections and it has been hypothesized that prior to European colonization, Indigenous Peoples facilitated the dispersal of Bunya Pine as part of these ancient traditions.\u0000\u0000We used ethnohistorical information on the use of Bunya Pine by Indigenous Peoples to interpret genomic patterns within and between disjunct distributions of Bunya Pine.\u0000\u0000We found signatures of long‐term isolation within the Australian Wet Tropics (AWT) and extensive gene flow within southeast Queensland (SEQ) that does not fit models of faunal or passive dispersal. Within SEQ, we found greater population structure amongst sites known to pre‐date European colonization, than when colonial‐era planted sites were included in our analyses, suggesting that pre‐colonial translocation was sporadic or localized rather than systematic and widespread. Increased Indigenous translocations in conjunction with plantings by European settlers appears to have erased the natural pre‐colonial population structure of SEQ Bunya Pine. Our stairway plot models suggest sharp population decline of SEQ Bunya Pine in the early and late Pleistocene, though we did not find evidence that anthropogenic dispersal facilitated effective population size growth of the species in the Holocene.\u0000\u0000We concluded that pre‐colonial translocation of SEQ Bunya Pine was likely restricted by kinship‐based custodial rights, and that when Indigenous Peoples were displaced by European settlers, translocation was intensified to maintain cultural connectivity. This study is an example of how Indigenous Australian groups adapt plant management strategies to meet socio‐cultural needs and demonstrates the potential for plant genomics to supplement Indigenous Biocultural Knowledge that has been impacted by colonial dispossession.\u0000\u0000Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.","PeriodicalId":52850,"journal":{"name":"People and Nature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139623491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What informs human–nature connection? An exploration of factors in the context of urban park visitors and wildlife","authors":"Shery Hayes Hursh, Elizabeth Perry, David Drake","doi":"10.1002/pan3.10571","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10571","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000Human–nature connection (HNC) is a concept derived from investigating the formulation and extent of an individual's identification with the natural world. This relationship is often characterized as an emotional bond to nature that develops from the contextualized, physical interactions of an individual, beginning in childhood. This outcome presents complexity in evaluating the development of HNC but suggests optimism in the pathways for enhancing lifelong HNC.\u0000\u0000As urban populations increase, there is a growing recognition worldwide of the potential for urban green space to cultivate HNC and thus shape the environmental identity of urban residents.\u0000\u0000The results of an online survey of 560 visitors to three community parks (managed primarily to provide a variety of physical, social and cultural opportunities) and three conservation parks (managed primarily to protect native plants and wildlife) in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, were used to investigate HNC.\u0000\u0000Linear mixed effects models evaluated visitors' HNC as a function of their (1) literacy and sentiment about wildlife species, (2) park experience, (3) number and frequency of nine childhood and adult recreation experiences, and (4) demographics.\u0000\u0000Across the park response groups, the number and frequency of childhood and adult recreation experiences was significantly associated with HNC, and this positive association persisted in multiple recreation activities. Furthermore, species literacy and sentiment, visiting a park for ‘Nature’, and frequent and extended visitation also was significantly associated with HNC by park type.\u0000\u0000Our research demonstrates the importance of lifelong recreation experiences in the development and enhancement of HNC and provides evidence for differences in the expression of HNC associated with particular attributes of urban park visitors and their views of wildlife.\u0000\u0000Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.","PeriodicalId":52850,"journal":{"name":"People and Nature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139444944","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Non‐material contributions of nature expressed by former tourists of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania","authors":"Jasmine Pearson, Milena Gross, Johanna Hofmann","doi":"10.1002/pan3.10575","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10575","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000Nature‐based tourism provides an outlet for people to experience non‐material nature's contributions to people (NCP) and can even promote care for nature. Yet, the literature on NCP is still dominated by studies on regulating and material NCP, with limited research on non‐material contributions.\u0000\u0000Semi‐structured interviews and photo‐elicitation methods were conducted online with 38 former tourists who have hiked Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, to investigate NCP experiences during their hiking journey. Drawing on the guiding principles of the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), an interwoven approach was used to link context‐specific NCP expressed by tourists to the generalizing perspective.\u0000\u0000Ten context‐specific non‐material NCP emerged including Aesthetic experiences; Learning and life‐changing perspectives; New and unique experiences; and Social cohesion and bonding. All context‐specific NCP were linked back to the generalizing perspective, with most NCP falling under the generalizing category of Physical and psychological experiences.\u0000\u0000This paper reveals the unique and diverse ways that nature contributes to people's lives, promoting the visibility of multiple perspectives and their incorporation into biodiversity conservation and sustainable management strategies. Through an interwoven approach, NCP can be compared on a universal scale while respecting the context‐specificity of human–nature interactions across different social‐ecological contexts.\u0000\u0000Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.","PeriodicalId":52850,"journal":{"name":"People and Nature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139389279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Favourite places for outdoor recreation: Weak correlations between perceived qualities and structural landscape characteristics in Swedish PPGIS study","authors":"Jonathan Stoltz, Carl Lehto, M. Hedblom","doi":"10.1002/pan3.10574","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10574","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000Connections between outdoor recreation and various health and well‐being benefits are well established. However, questions remain regarding which landscape characteristics that best predict places in the landscape that correspond to people's needs and preferences. The perceived sensory dimensions (PSDs) model proposes eight basic perceived qualities that people commonly seek in outdoor environments to support complementary needs: a Natural, a Cultural, a Cohesive, a Diverse, a Sheltered, an Open, a Serene and a Social quality respectively.\u0000\u0000These PSDs have increasingly been suggested as a tool for green space assessment and planning. How strongly they correlate with objective landscape characteristics is, however, still an open question. We surveyed recreationists in Sweden, tasking them with noting their favourite places on a map (n = 275), and to report the degree to which the PSDs were present. The qualities typically reported as most prominent at these places were Open, Serene and Sheltered, while the least prominent were Social and Cultural.\u0000\u0000A cluster analysis further revealed that favourite places could be classified into two main groups regarding perceived qualities. One associated with presumably more restorative qualities, emphasising Natural and Serene settings, the other instead suggesting a more outward‐directed experience, strong in the perceived Social and Cultural dimensions.\u0000\u0000Machine learning models, however, revealed weak links between objective landscape characteristics and perceived qualities, with stronger correlations found with attributes connected to personal characteristics, such as the degrees to which a person identifies as nature or urban oriented.\u0000\u0000Although largely confirming the basic relations between the PSDs suggested by earlier studies, our results cast some doubt on the way they often have been understood and used, as describing an ‘objective’ truth of places, rather than representing qualities that largely emanate from the individual experience. Our results instead confirm previous reports of weak general links between objective landscape measures and perceived qualities.\u0000\u0000Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.","PeriodicalId":52850,"journal":{"name":"People and Nature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138945799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Where wilderness is found: Evidence from 70,000 trip reports","authors":"Monika M. Derrien, S. Winder, Spencer A. Wood, Lesley Miller, E. Lia, L. Cerveny, Sarah Lange, Sonja H. Kolstoe, Grace McGrady, Anna Roth","doi":"10.1002/pan3.10569","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10569","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000Outdoor recreation is an essential way many people engage with nature. The provision of public spaces for recreation intersects with conservation practices motivated by intertwined social and ecological values, such as strict practices associated with the concept of ‘wilderness’. Debates persist about how such concepts and management practices influence people's recreation experiences.\u0000\u0000Many US public land management agencies facilitate opportunities for outdoor recreation, relying on management frameworks and tools intended to foster specific experiential qualities. But these frameworks and tools assume simplistic relationships between settings and people's experiences, and managers rarely assess these relationships.\u0000\u0000This study uses a data set of nearly 70,000 crowdsourced trip reports from a hiking website to understand the qualities of visitors' experiences on trails. We study the geographic distribution of experiential qualities commonly associated with US wilderness areas: aesthetics, awe, challenge, pristineness, quietness, solitude and timelessness. Using analytical methods that rely on machine learning and natural language processing, we identify these experiential qualities in trip reports from hundreds of routes, and use generalized linear models to analyse relationships between the frequency of each experiential quality and the route's administrative, built, biophysical, geographic and social settings.\u0000\u0000We find that four of the seven experiential qualities (aesthetics, awe, challenge and solitude) are commonly described in trip reports, each appearing in 15%–55% of manually coded reports. The extent to which setting characteristics explained variability in experiences differed, ranging from 34% of the variability in the proportion of trip reports describing aesthetics to 55% for awe. The setting characteristics associated with each experiential quality also differed, with characteristics such as trail mileage and summit destinations having stronger influences on experiential qualities than characteristics such as wilderness designation.\u0000\u0000Synthesis and applications. Our findings suggest the need to consider more diverse variables in experience–setting relationships, develop more robust models to characterize those relationships and create new data sources to represent understudied variables. These advances would help empirically inform and improve frameworks and tools used for recreation and wilderness planning and monitoring, and potentially promote more responsive management to evolving social–ecological values.\u0000\u0000Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.","PeriodicalId":52850,"journal":{"name":"People and Nature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138956435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Inclusion of ecosystem services in the management of municipal natural open space systems","authors":"N. Wessels, N. Sitas, Patrick O'Farrell, K. Esler","doi":"10.1002/pan3.10572","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10572","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000Unprecedented urbanisation in the Global South is transforming natural urban landscapes, impacting on the ability of nature to provide essential ecosystem services.\u0000\u0000Within the context of pressures facing many urban natural open spaces, particularly in Africa, we used a local municipality in South Africa as a case study to (i) identify local government priorities for a natural open space system; (ii) develop an understanding of whether, and how, ecosystem services are considered by local government, and the reasons thereof; and (iii) ascertain the extent of proactive planning regarding regulating and other ecosystem services, including the temporal and spatial scales, and implications. In‐depth qualitative interviews (n = 12) were undertaken with senior municipal officials representing departments whose work impacts the environment. Municipal decision‐support documents were also analysed for any direct and/or indirect references to ecosystem services.\u0000\u0000Planning for, and management of, ecosystem services provided by natural open spaces is influenced by interwoven infrastructure, municipal service delivery and equity challenges, complex institutional constraints and poverty, with little focus on the socio‐economic opportunities and other benefits of natural open space systems. Values, perceptions and knowledge also influence the management of ecosystem services.\u0000\u0000The study contributes to understanding the opportunities and challenges for the future governance of natural open space in the Global South, which require explicit consideration in municipal planning, management and budgeting processes.\u0000\u0000Policy and management implications identified include prioritisation of the regulating functions provided by natural open space systems, pivotal to the urban resilience agenda; building on the inherent appreciation of nature features as city assets, while achieving socio‐economic upliftment; improved (on‐site) collaborative management of natural open spaces; and involvement of local government officials in the preparation and updating of environmental policies and decision‐support documents, to ensure skills and knowledge transfer and interest are entrenched in local government departments.\u0000\u0000Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.","PeriodicalId":52850,"journal":{"name":"People and Nature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138959907","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Multidimensional mental representations of natural environment among Chinese preadolescents via draw‐and‐write mapping","authors":"Z. Yue, Yichuan Meng, Jin Chen","doi":"10.1002/pan3.10577","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10577","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000The mental associations that children have with the natural environment can be referred to as their natural representations. These representations encompass a blend of shared consensus and individual differences, playing a pivotal role in shaping human relationships with nature and influencing attitudes and behaviours. However, comprehending children's natural representations, particularly among preadolescents with limited verbal narrative abilities, remains a challenge.\u0000\u0000To address this challenge, we conducted a study employing a draw‐and‐write task and a questionnaire survey. Our investigation aimed to understand how the level of nature experiences and demographic variables affects the multidimensional representations of nature among preadolescents (aged 9–12) in China. Specifically, we examined the impacts of direct, indirect and vicarious nature experiences on their natural representations. These representations included dimensions such as the level of wildness, cognitive complexity, extent of elaboration, expression of emotion and representation style. These dimensions were based on literature review and supported by empirical data collected from children's drawings.\u0000\u0000Our findings showed that children's drawings of nature not only share similarities but also display significant variations. Most of their drawings include natural components, such as living and non‐living elements, while a notable proportion of drawings depicts human activities. Interestingly, we observed notable differences in the level of wildness, elaboration and representation style among preadolescents from different regions. Additionally, we found that vicarious nature experiences have a significant positive impact on the cognitive complexity, extent of elaboration and positive emotional expression in children's drawings, while direct nature experiences also have a weaker but still significant positive effect on the elaboration. Moreover, female students exhibit greater proficiency in these three aspects compared to their male counterparts.\u0000\u0000The study highlights the significance of the surrounding environment and nature experiences, especially vicarious nature experience, in shaping the natural representations of preadolescents. Using draw‐and‐write mapping is recommended as a valuable approach to understanding the children's mental representations of the natural environment.\u0000\u0000Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.","PeriodicalId":52850,"journal":{"name":"People and Nature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138959802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}