Plain Language Summary: Could human-nature connectedness (HNC) affect pro-environmental behaviors towards a more sustainable future?

By Grzegorz Mikusiński, Marine Elbakidze, Ewa Orlikowska, Ioanna Skaltsa, Michał Żmihorski, and Katarzyna Iwińska.

Read the full paper here.

There is an urgent need for “reconnecting” humans with nature. This can strengthen our pro-environmental behaviors, and support the quest for a more sustainable future. Currently, humanity faces several great environmental challenges including climate change, environmental degradation, species extinction and rapid human population growth. To face these issues, we need a global-scale transition to living in a more sustainable way by adopting a shift in our behaviors to become more environmentally friendly. During modern times, humans have detached themselves from the natural world, thus, the human-nature relationship became weaker. Consequently, the positive impacts that these relationships have on our well-being have been reduced.

Using Greece, Poland and Sweden as case studies, we explore how human personal and environmental characteristics associate with human-nature connectedness (HNC) across different contexts in the European Union. We surveyed a total of 1054 citizens from these countries to identify common and specific factors that influence self-reported HNC. In all three countries, people’s value orientation was among the most important factors related to HNC. People with highly biospheric orientations i.e. judging things largely on the basis of costs or benefits to nature, coincided with a high level of HNC. Other common factors that affected HNC were gender, self-reported financial situation, frequency of nature outings and current and childhood residence location. Women expressed a higher level of HNC than did men; also, people in a better economic condition indicated higher HNC. Similarly, people who visit the natural environment more frequently had a higher level of HNC. Regarding factors related to the natural environment, our results show that childhood residence place was important only in Sweden, and that those living close to the sea reported higher HNC.

We conclude that HNC can effectively relate to personal (internal), as well as to environmental (external) characteristics. Nevertheless, the socio-demographics of our respondents appeared to be noticeably more important for explaining HNC than the environment. We argue that understanding factors that affect HNC is crucial in developing a pathway towards a more sustainable future for present and next generations. We recommend that HNC be considered as a key metric at the global scale.