Summary:

A 61-country study of 57,000 people, published in Ambio and led by Miles Richardson (University of Derby), ranked Britain 55th for “nature connectedness” — a psychological measure of how close people feel to the natural world. Nepal ranked highest, followed by Iran, South Africa, Bangladesh and Nigeria; several European countries (Croatia, Bulgaria, France) also featured near the top. Countries near the bottom included the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan and Spain.

Key findings and points:

• Nature connectedness links to better wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviour; low connection is identified as one of three major contributors to biodiversity loss (alongside inequality and prioritising individual/material gain).
• Strongest positive predictor of nature connectedness was societal levels of “spirituality” (importance of religion and belief), measured using World Values Survey data.
• Higher urbanisation, higher mean income and greater internet use correlated with lower nature connectedness. A World Bank “ease of doing business” score also correlated with reduced connection.
• Surprisingly, high national membership in environmental organisations (as in Britain) did not translate into greater personal nature connectedness.
• Richardson suggested ways to foster connection: integrating nature into healthcare and mental-health treatments, enshrining nature rights in law, including nature in corporate governance and biodiversity-net-gain policies, and designing urban nature that fosters deeper emotional/spiritual engagement rather than just parks.
• Graham Usher (Bishop of Norwich) supported the idea that spiritual and early-life nature experiences (forest schools, wild church) help cultivate care for nature.

Archive: https://archive.fo/BEHIY