Finding Nature

The 8^th August 2022 was the day I created the biodiversity stripes and they have had a great first year, from creation at home one evening to Paris, Cairo, Montreal, London and Berlin – picking up an award, press and TV coverage along the way. Most importantly, as summarised in this blog, they are doing what I hoped for when I published them for the first time on 10^th August 2022 – to ‘go a little way to raising the awareness of the decline in wildlife’.

A key aspect for a sustainable future is people being aware of the problem. People cannot push for a solution to a problem they do not know exists – and climate change has been found to get up to eight times more coverage than biodiversity loss. Based on the successful climate warming stripes created by Professor Ed Hawkins in 2018, the biodiversity stripes similarly represent complex data simply and in an engaging way.

The Living Planet Index provided the initial data. It includes over 20,000 populations of over 4000 species and tells us that the population of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles has seen an average drop of 69% globally since 1970. A catastrophic collapse of the wildlife that makes the Earth, and our brief existence on it, so wonderful, so colourful, and so alive. Human actions, our use and control of natural resources, are causing a mass extinction – a loss of colour, a journey from green to grey.

The green to grey stripes worked. Within a few weeks the biodiversity stripes were available on a variety of Greenpeace tops and appeared in the French National Assembly. Around that time, they were also adopted by the global Nature Positive campaign, a coalition of 32 leading NGOs, to put nature at the very heart of the world’s two biggest environmental conventions, COP27 and COP15 where the stripes decorated the Nature Zone. The Nature Positive campaign offered a vision of optimism, by saying we can reverse the decline in biodiversity. The campaign is deceptively simple, it inverts the stripes so that rather than representing decline they provide a vision that the diverse and sometimes fragmented nature community could collaborate around. This biodiversity stripes themed campaign won the Best Environmental Cause Campaign at the Purpose Awards in June 2023. Supported by industry-leading brands such as PRWeek, the awards recognise campaigns that use creative ideas successfully to further positive causes.

Around the time of COP27 in December 2022 the biodiversity stripes were featured on Channel 4 News and I launched a dedicated home at https://biodiversitystripes.info/ – which was updated to become a twin site of the climate warming stripes in April. Soon after that there was further press and TV coverage, namely in the Financial Times and the national French TV weather forecast. They also appeared at the ClimateNow Conference in Paris and formed the cover of a Spanish Magazine. Highlighting how the concept works without words. The Durrell Tortoise Takeover is one more example of how the stripes can inspire others.

Perhaps most excitingly for me as I was invited to attend, a new set of biodiversity stripes decorated the Hintze Hall at the Natural History Museum in London in June. The new biodiversity stripes provided the theme for the Natural History Museum’s Annual Trustees’ Dinner, attended by 300 guests, from Government ministers to celebrities that care about our natural world. Using the Museum’s 2000 to 2050 Biodiversity Intactness Index the new stripes showed how nature in the UK can recover from previous damage given time, space, and effort. The stripes featured on screens around the hall, menus, invites and the like, with green and yellow lighting illuminating this iconic space. Once again, the message was clear we can, and must, fix our broken relationship with nature.

In addition to raising the awareness of the decline in wildlife another positive is how quickly an individual’s idea can spread with social media and the Internet. The initial blog received 3000 views in the first 24 hours or so, with a total now around 17,000. Add in an update blog that followed and the total is around 20,000 – the new biodiversitystripes.info website has had 1.3 million views since late April. Much of that driven by social media. A few initials tweets launching the stripes in August 2022 received around 100,000 impressions. With a tweet launching biodiversitystripes.info in December getting close to 1.5 million impressions, mainly thanks to a retweet by Greta Thunberg.

What next? Profile wise, year one is tough to beat, but the need to address and reverse the stark loss in biodiversity remains. Greater awareness helps, because when people are satisfied with their natural environment they don’t see the need for change. So, there are millions more people to engage, and it seems the biodiversity stripes can help, both in raising awareness of the problem, but also flipped over to provide a vision of hope. So, I hope to see more of the stripes, with new data stretching further back or existing data projected onto landmarks, in the press, on a football kits or with compelling overlays that engage people with the loss of wildlife.

 

Guest blog by Mia Morgan

The wellbeing benefits of nature connection are well-documented, but what about its impact on disordered eating? This is a topic discussed and researched far less and is the focus of my current PhD project! In addition to background on the topic, this blog provides information on an opportunity for people with previous experience of disordered eating and professionals who support this population to get involved – further details below.

Nature connection interventions are being developed to improve wellbeing in the general population as well as some clinical groups. However, I am not aware of an intervention focusing on nature connection that has been developed and trialled with people with disordered eating. A growing amount of research evidence suggests that engaging with nature could help this population. Studies with the general population have shown that nature exposure and connection can increase body appreciation, including appreciation of its functions, both of which are protective factors for disordered eating. Additionally, people who have recovered from eating disorders have explained that connecting to nature allows them to re-connect with their bodies – a connection often lost when experiencing disordered eating symptoms. They also expressed how it allows them to experience a sense of belonging, feeling like nature accepts them for who they are without judgement.  These are just a few of the documented benefits! Despite this evidence, consideration around using connection to nature as a potential therapeutic strategy for this population is lacking.

To address this gap, my PhD project will develop a nature connection intervention for people with disordered eating in collaboration with individuals with lived experience of these attitudes and behaviours and relevant professionals. I will then carry out a small-scale trial, to test whether people find it effective and acceptable.  The plan is for this intervention to be available to people aged 16+ who are in the earlier stages of experiencing disordered eating symptoms, so do not have an eating disorder diagnosis. It is hoped that the intervention will made available through social prescribing, a framework that allows healthcare professionals usually working within primary care to refer people to programmes in their community, to ensure as many people can access it as possible. I am lucky to have First Steps ED, a disordered eating charity based in Derby, as a collaborator on the project, supporting me in various ways.

So, how am I developing this intervention? I have decided to use an approach that grounds the development in the experiences and perspectives of the people that will use the intervention, as well as people with other relevant expertise. My first study involves online interviews with people with previous experience of disordered eating and focus groups with professionals who support this population in community settings including third sector organisations. These will explore people’s views and experiences on how nature can support people with disordered eating and their thoughts on how the intervention may look. I encourage people to be as open and creative as possible with their thoughts as this is a brand-new type of intervention for this population.

The findings from these sessions will be used to help design the intervention, so they are a great opportunity for people to contribute to the intervention development and have their say on what they think would make it effective. I am now inviting people to participate in these interviews and focus groups, so if you would like to find out more, please do get in touch (email below). Or follow the link below for more information. I am keen to recruit people of all genders and ethnicities to make sure this intervention is both relevant and accessible to as many people as possible, which is often lacking with disordered eating interventions.

I am also carrying out focus groups (at a later date) with people delivering nature connection interventions in the community to support mental health and social prescribers. These will also be exploring people’s ideas on the design of the intervention. Please also get in touch if you would like to find out more about these.

Following this study, I will create a draft version of the intervention which will be shared with the co-creators (people with lived experience of disordered eating, professionals that support this population, nature-based practitioners, and social prescribers) in various ways. In response to feedback gathered from these individuals, I will refine the intervention before going onto test it out with a group of people with disordered eating. I will measure the effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability of the intervention through various outcome measures as well as surveys and interviews. If all goes well, I am hoping this will lead to a larger trial (Randomised Control Trial) post-PhD – the ultimate dream!

Overall, my goal for this project is to create an intervention that is as tailored and effective as possible for people with disordered eating. I am determined to develop something that can be accessed and used by as many people as possible, including people from all genders and backgrounds and with different levels of access to nature. I hope the intervention will be a way to teach people skills they can use in their everyday lives, utilising the incredible (free to use!) resource that is nature, which is often taken for granted and not given the appreciation it deserves for how powerful it can be in improving our wellbeing!

 

Find out more about my study

If you have any questions or would like to find out more about my first study involving interviews with people with previous experience of disordered eating and focus groups with professionals who support this population then please email me. Or follow this link where you can find more information and sign up. Likewise, please do contact me with any queries related to the project, it would be great to hear from you!

 

Environmental institutions are realising that the human-nature relationship is a tangible target for a sustainable future, but societal change of that relationship is a challenge involving modifications to both systems and human behaviours. In our latest paper, State of science: refitting the human to nature, we argue that Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) with its focus on relationships, interfaces and systems is well placed to contribute. Although it has an HFE focus I think it provides perspectives that are of wider interest. For example, how a range of disciplines can contribute to a sustainable future and the need to ‘de-centre people’. The paper is available open access. This blog provides a brief summary of one key area in the paper, the need to move beyond technological solutions and take a systems perspective.

There is growing global recognition that the biodiversity and climate crises are a product of the failing human-nature relationship and that, for a sustainable future, a new relationship with nature is needed. However, in general, humans do not live in harmony with nature, we don’t know what a sustainable future looks like. There is an urgent need for new solutions.

Humans are a ‘technological ape’; a species long dependent on and ever more defined by its technology. This helps explain the focus on technological solutions to treat the symptoms of the failing relationship to deliver sustainability and the difficulty of even starting to consider the worldviews and mindsets that define the human-nature relationship. The fixation on visible issues is captured by a simple representation of systems thinking, the ‘Iceberg Model’. The visible events of biodiversity loss and climate warming are symptoms of unseen factors below the surface at the base of the iceberg such as our mindsets and worldviews that encompass our values, beliefs and assumptions.

The foundation of Western thought is taught and continually reinforced through dominant metaphors, which we reinforce further through using technological solutions in our attempts to deliver sustainability and rebalance the complex systems of nature. This consists of two reinforcing patterns. First, when we distance ourselves from nature through technology and our built environment, we reduce how we value nature. Second, as technological apes we have come to rely on introducing more technologies as the ‘solution’ to the problems we have created. Our solutions are constrained by our worldview. In essence we exacerbate our problems rather than releasing ourselves from an unsustainable cycle.

Proposals to tackle base of the iceberg and achieve a paradigm shift in the human-nature relationship are being made. For example, through taking a systems perspective and combining the ‘pathways to nature connectedness’ with a leverage points perspective we showed how the pathways to nature connectedness could be applied at various leverage points within systems.

This provides a perspective where the pathways can inform cultural and urban design. Interventions to improve the human–nature relationship can target the powerful pathways of sensory, meaningful and emotional engagement with nature. Recommendations across policy areas such as education, health, housing, arts, health and transport, can target leverage points around system goals, design, feedback and parameters to foster closer human–nature relationships across society. The areas for action in the evidence report for the United Nations General Assembly’s Stockholm + 50 meeting draw upon this work as one route towards redefining and strengthening human-nature connectedness in our social norms.

This work shows that the design of infrastructure, places, spaces, organisations, transport, housing and healthcare can be used to build human-nature connections. Different areas with expertise to create visons of sustainable communities, designed to create a new relationship with nature. To achieve this HFE and other areas need to take an unlikely step, to recognise that design should not always be human-centred. That cognitive flip of de-centring humans to being part of nature, both as a person and as a professional, would facilitate a meaningful contribution to a wider new relationship with nature for a sustainable future. This alternative ‘life-centred design’ unites both human and nature’s wellbeing. It is time to move on from solely fitting the world to the human, to refitting the human to nature.

 

Miles Richardson & Andrew Thatcher (2023) State of science: refitting the human to nature, Ergonomics, DOI: 10.1080/00140139.2023.2236340

As part of the ‘Connected Treescapes‘ project we’ve been exploring how people value trees to inform the design of future treescapes. Part of that work was a survey of 1800+ people. They’ll be more involved analysis published in the future, but there are some interesting results in the raw responses, for example, people have a closer relationship with trees than their neighbours!

Let’s take a closer look.

Despite the UK being one of the most deforested nations on the planet around 80% of people in our survey area thought they had plenty of trees within a five-minute walk of their home, and that those trees were very varied in age and species of tree. 25% even reporting that there are plenty of woodlands within 5 minutes of their home. We found similar views on the presence of other aspects of nature, such as wildflowers. These results perhaps reflect a ‘shifting baseline’ where each generation sees the current level of woodland as the norm.

When asking about engagement with trees, over 80% reported that they take notice of trees wherever they are, with only 7% disagreeing. 75% of people felt that large and noticeable trees were important to them, once again with only 7% disagreeing. Such that 50% of people reported having a ‘favourite tree’ they notice frequently. Trees are meaningful to people.

Although reporting the noticing of trees, and having favourite trees, when asked if they had a close relationship with trees, only 16% felt this was very close, although this is notably higher than the 7% who feel that they had a very close relationship with their neighbours. Perhaps people struggle to imagine a close and interconnected relationship with trees, but the difference to neighbours is interesting. Broadening these connections out, over 60% felt their relationship with nature more generally was an important part of their identity, with a similar proportion feeling very interconnected to all living things on Earth.

Although asking about people’s relationship with trees might seem unusual, it is those that feel a close relationship with the natural world who take most positive action towards it – and it tends to contribute to greater wellbeing also. Having a close emotional bond, such as having a favourite tree, is important, but it also important to feel closely connected to trees and the wider natural world. This need for a close bond with nature being needed to drive positive pro-nature behaviours is reflected in another aspect of the survey. Although three-quarters agreed that they always think about how their actions affect the environment, far fewer take action, from half planting pollinator friendly plants to just over a third providing homes for nature in their gardens. Only 8% reported taking action on local nature conservation issues, but then as we’ve seen most people thought there was plenty of trees and nature nearby.

We also asked about the benefits of trees. Over 90% realise and agree that trees bring better air quality (94%) and that they support wildlife (95%). With around 86% knowing that trees help prevent erosions/ flooding. 86% of respondents felt that trees are an important part of our history and heritage, and childhood (93%), with 73% recalling that they had a lot of contact with trees during their childhood.

Turning to threats to trees, 74% of respondents felt that urban development presented the greatest threat to trees, higher than climate change (65%) and diseases and pests (55%). However, although development can be a threat to some trees, in the long-term climate change is the bigger threat, through changes in the weather (e.g. droughts) and by creating more favourable conditions for many pests and diseases.

So, people notice trees, are aware of their benefits and they have a meaningful relationship with them – more so than with their neighbours. In some ways everything is a little too rosy as people tend to think there are plenty of trees and, therefore, unlikely to do a great deal to help restore woodland cover.

 

The Nature Connectedness Research Group is 10 years old! I set it up in May 2013. It seemed intuitive to me that the human relationship with nature mattered and was at the heart of environmental crises. Looking back to 2013 I founded it to ‘understand people’s connection to the natural environment and design and evaluate local interventions in order to improve connectedness; bringing about the associated benefits in well-being and conservation behaviour’ – it’s gone well! The group has produced a large amount of research, applied it widely and been recognised for its work – winning two Green Gown Research with Impact awards in 2021 and being named by Universities UK as one of the UK’s 100 best breakthroughs for its impact.

With increased recognition of the human-nature relationship being a root cause of the environmental crises, the Nature Connectedness Research Group is doing what it can to lead efforts to create a new relationship with nature, through research to understand, application through frameworks and interventions and sharing guidance.

Our Research

Clearly, a research group starts with research. The Nature Connectedness Research Group was perhaps the first to focus squarely in this area. In 2013 only a few research papers used the term ‘nature connectedness’ in their title with 77 using the term at all. By 2022 that 77 had grown to 1410.

The research projects have ranged from small student projects, those done on a shoestring (or zero!) budget to two large scale £1+ million consortium programmes – Improving Wellbeing through Urban Nature (2016 to 2019) and Connected Treescapes (2021 to present).

The projects have produced a lot of research findings. I’m unsure how many now, but in that time getting on for 100 journal papers involving over 20 University of Derby staff have been published – there’s a list of some below. They can be split into a few areas of focus.

Environmental Factors: The group has examined the influence of environmental factors on nature connectedness. From investigating the impact of avian biodiversity in urban green spaces on human emotions to exploring the association between visible garden biodiversity and nature connectedness, the group has highlighted the significance of nature’s diversity in shaping human well-being.

Mental Well-being and Health: Researchers have explored the links between nature connectedness and various aspects of well-being, including eudaimonic well-being, mood, and mental health. Investigations into the effects of forest-bathing, mindfulness-based interventions, nature writing tasks, and nature-based positive psychological interventions have demonstrated the potential of nature connection approaches to enhance mental well-being and promote emotion regulation. We have explored green prescriptions and nature connectedness approaches for populations including those living with addiction, psychopathy, paranoia, disordered eating, and anxiety.

Psychological Dimensions: Such as the relationship between nature connectedness, nonattachment, and engagement with nature’s beauty has revealed how individuals can derive meaning and fulfilment from their connection to the natural world. The group has investigated the connection between nature connectedness and dark personality traits, unravelling the complex interplay between individual traits and environmental attitudes.

Measurement: Another area of focus has been developing measures (e.g. the NCI and ProCoBs) so that researchers can better understand the factors that drive individuals to engage in sustainable practices. Furthermore, the group has examined the influence of nature connectedness on parental self-efficacy, highlighting the role of caregivers in fostering nature connection in their children. Our work has suggested that nature connectedness is a key metric for sustainable future.

Interventions and Engagement: Understanding how to effectively connect people with nature has been a core focus of the group’s research. Through evaluating interventions such as green outdoor educational programs and outdoor, arts-based activities, the researchers have identified strategies to foster nature connectedness. Additionally, the exploration of the impact of the “30 days wild” campaign has shed light on the potential of large-scale initiatives to enhance nature connectedness and well-being.

Details of much of this work can be found by searching this site.

Our Impact

As a former engineer with a focus on human factors (the fit between people and the things they do) solutions are important to me. And the research above has been applied wherever possible. It falls into three themes.

Improving the human-nature relationship through via the pathways to nature connectedness.

Our pathways to nature connectedness design framework has been widely adopted by organisations in the UK and around the world to help connect people with nature. We have worked with a range of partners, including Natural England, National Trust, and the Wildlife Trusts and other environmental NGOs and organisations of all shapes and sizes across public, charitable, and private sectors. Our research and knowledge exchange work is broad in scope, contributing to the visitor experience and engagement at nature reserves, activities within green social prescribing and mental wellness programmes, policy briefings, design of buildings and landscapes, artworks, leadership development, and educational programmes. Case studies on the ‘Pathways to Nature Connectedness’ from the organisations above and others such as Plymouth City Council can be found in our Nature Connection Handbook.

The pathways also inform the Government’s Green Influencers scheme and the Green Recovery Challenge Fund guidance thereby informing initiatives such as Generation Green where organisations such as the YHA, Scouts, National Parks connect young people with nature. In 2015, the Wildlife Trusts used the pathways to inform the design of their innovative ‘30 Days Wild’ national programme with over one million people taking part in the first 5 years. In 2018, the National Trust adopted the pathways as a framework they could apply to the design of visitor experience activities and programmes.  One part of this work was a refresh of the national campaign “50 things to do before you’re 11¾” which was launched nationally in Easter 2019. The pathways have also informed physical spaces, for example the Butterfly House at Durrell Zoo and Silence at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

The utility of the pathways framework for application across contexts to improve human-nature relations – from design of local programmes to policy and urban places has been included in policy briefings and evidence reviews such as Stockholm+50, a UN science evidence review. For more transformative change, we are developing the use of the pathways to inform urban design and to inform policy and culture through the use of system leverage points for transformational change.

Nature connection for mental health and wellbeing

Our nature connection focussed interventions have led to clinically significant improvements in mental health, with the research informing policy briefings, green social prescription schemes and the Mental Health Foundation’s 2021 Mental Health Awareness Week – the world’s largest mental health week campaign. Our ‘three good things in nature’ approach has part of a green prescription pilot run by RSPB Scotland. Our research also informs the work of Mind, again see our Nature Connection Handbook.

Nature connection and pro-nature behaviour measures.

We were part of the team that developed the Nature Connection Index (NCI) a measure designed to be suitable for both children and adults in populations surveys. The NCI helped us to be among the first to identify the ‘teenage dip’ in nature connection.

We have also created the first scale to measure pro-nature conservation behaviours, the Pro-Nature Conservation Behaviour Scale – or ProCoBS for short. ProCoBS is a psychometrically validated scale measuring active behaviours that specifically support the conservation of biodiversity. ProCoBS has enabled us to do work that showed that being connected to nature plays a vital role in pro-nature conservation behaviours.

Both measures have been included in Natural England’s People & Nature Survey, enabling the impact of nature connection on wellbeing and pro-nature behaviours to be explored at population scale.

Biodiversity Stripes

More recently I’ve developed the biodiversity stripes. They were swiftly adopted by the Nature Positive campaign led by Nature4Climate. A global effort to raise the profile of action to protect, manage and restore natural ecosystems for the benefit of the world’s peoples, the climate and biodiversity. They appeared at the COP27 Nature Zone and alongside the climate warming stripes, the biodiversity stripes decorated a baton taken to COP15 to unite the climate and nature agenda. The stripes have featured in the French Parliament and national TV.

Overall, over 20 of our research papers have been referenced 70 or so times in 46 documents from 28 policy bodies in 12 countries, including the IPCC, WHO, EU OECD, and Governments of New Zealand, Finland and the UK.

Where Next

Since forming, the Nature Connectedness Research Group has done a great deal to show nature connection can unite both human and nature’s wellbeing, but we are always looking forwards to more research, more application and sharing – with aim to make an even bigger difference to the human-nature relationship for a more sustainable future. These steps are much more challenging, but there is momentum.

A sustainable future requires a transformational change in our relationship with nature. Large-scale social and cultural shifts are needed to meet the challenges we face in addressing the climate and wildlife emergencies. Nature connectedness captures that relationship and the principles can be applied at a wider scale across the public realm to change how people relate to the rest of the natural world. With the focus of many sustainability initiatives being on reduction and restriction, nature connection offers a positive vision of a vibrant and nature-rich world that helps people feel good and live meaningful lives.

With others, the NCRG can hopefully find a way to shape the future of our institutions, spaces, and processes: putting nature connection into education’s curricula, teaching spaces or practices; designing landscapes, urban spaces, and buildings that provide for and prompt engagement with nature; creating technologies that connect rather than disconnect humans from nature; developing health and social care services that integrate nature connection; or inspiring families, friends and communities to come together to enjoy and nurture nature.

 

A selection of NCRG Publications 

There have been dozens of journal papers involving approx. 20 UoD staff across a range of disciplines, here’s a selection:

Barbett, L., Stupple, E. J. N., Sweet, M., Schofield, M. B., & Richardson, M. (2020). Measuring Actions for Nature—Development and Validation of a Pro-Nature Conservation Behaviour Scale. Sustainability, 12(12), Article 12. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12124885

Barnes, C., Harvey, C., Holland, F., & Wall, S. (2021). Development and testing of the Nature Connectedness Parental Self-Efficacy (NCPSE) scale. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 65, 127343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127343

Barrows, P. D., Richardson, M., Hamlin, I., & Van Gordon, W. (2022). Nature Connectedness, Nonattachment, and Engagement with Nature’s Beauty Predict Pro-Nature Conservation Behavior. Ecopsychology, 14(2), 83–91. https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2021.0036

Cameron, R. W., Brindley, P., Mears, M., McEwan, K., Ferguson, F., Sheffield, D., … & Richardson, M. (2020). Where the wild things are! Do urban green spaces with greater avian biodiversity promote more positive emotions in humans?. Urban Ecosystems, 23(2), 301-317.

Choe, E. Y., Jorgensen, A., & Sheffield, D. (2020). Does a natural environment enhance the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)? Examining the mental health and wellbeing, and nature connectedness benefits. Landscape and Urban Planning, 202, 103886. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103886

Choe, E. Y., Jorgensen, A., & Sheffield, D. (2020). Simulated natural environments bolster the effectiveness of a mindfulness programme: A comparison with a relaxation-based intervention. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 67, 101382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.101382

Choe, E. Y., Jorgensen, A., & Sheffield, D. (2021). Examining the effectiveness of mindfulness practice in simulated and actual natural environments: Secondary data analysis. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 66, 127414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127414

Dobson, J., Birch, J., Brindley, P., Henneberry, J., McEwan, K., Mears, M., Richardson, M. & Jorgensen, A (2020). The magic of the mundane: The vulnerable web of connections between urban nature and wellbeing. Cities, 108, 102989.

Fido, D., Rees, A., Clarke, P., Petronzi, D., & Richardson, M. (2020). Examining the connection between nature connectedness and dark personality. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 101499. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101499

Fido, D., & Richardson, M. (2019). Empathy mediates the relationship between nature connectedness and both callous and uncaring traits. Ecopsychology, 11(2), 130–137. https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2018.0071

Garip, G., Rees, A. & Richardson, M. (2021). Development and implementation of evaluation resources for a green outdoor educational program. Journal of Environmental Education, 52(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2020.1845588

Hallam. J., Gallagher, L., & Harvey C. (2021) ‘I don’t wanna go. I’m staying. This is my home now.’ Analysis of an intervention for connecting young people to urban nature. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, 65, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127341

Hallam J., Gallagher, L., & Harvey, C. (2019). ‘We’ve been exploring and adventuring.’ An investigation into young people’s engagement with a semi-wild, disused space. The Humanistic Psychologist. https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000158

Hallam, J., Gallagher, L., & Owen K. (2021). The secret language of flowers: insights from an outdoor, arts-based intervention designed to connect primary school children to locally accessible nature. Environmental Education Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2021.1994926

Hamlin, I., & Richardson, M. (2022). Visible Garden Biodiversity Is Associated with Noticing Nature and Nature Connectedness. Ecopsychology, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2021.0064

Harvey, C., Sheffield, D., Richardson, M., & Wells, R. (2022). The Impact of a “Three Good Things in Nature” Writing Task on Nature Connectedness, Pro-nature Conservation Behavior, Life Satisfaction, and Mindfulness in Children. Ecopsychology. https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2022.0014

Keenan, R., Lumber, R., Richardson, M., & Sheffield, D. (2021). Three good things in nature: A nature-based positive psychological intervention to improve mood and well-being for depression and anxiety. Journal of Public Mental Health, 20(4), 243–250.  https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-02-2021-0029

Kotera, Y., Richardson, M., & Sheffield, D. (2020). Effects of shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) and nature therapy on mental health: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00363-4

Lumber, R., Richardson, M., & Sheffield, D. (2017). Beyond knowing nature: Contact, emotion, compassion, meaning, and beauty are pathways to nature connection. PLoS ONE, 12(5).  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177186

Martin, L., White, M. P., Hunt, A., Richardson, M., Pahl, S., & Burt, J. (2020). Nature contact, nature connectedness and associations with health, wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 68.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101389

McEwan, K., Richardson, M., Brindley, P., Sheffield, D., Tait, C., Johnson, S., Sutch, H., & Ferguson, F. J. (2020). Shmapped: Development of an app to record and promote the well-being benefits of noticing urban nature. Translational Behavioral Medicine, 10(3), 723–733.  https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/ibz027

McEwan, K., Richardson, M., Sheffield, D., Ferguson, F. J., & Brindley, P. (2021). Assessing the feasibility of public engagement in a smartphone app to improve well-being through nature connection (Evaluación de la factibilidad de la implicación ciudadana mediante una app de teléfonos inteligentes para mejorar el bienestar a través de la conexión con la naturaleza). Psyecology, 12(1), 45-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/21711976.2020.1851878

McEwan, K., Giles, D., Clarke, F.J., Kotera, Y., Evans, G., Terebenina, O., Minou, L., Teeling, C. & Wood, W. (2021). A pragmatic controlled trial of Forest Bathing compared with Compassionate Mind Training in a UK population: impacts on self-reported wellbeing and heart rate variability. Sustainability

Muneghina, O., Van Gordon, W., Barrows, P., & Richardson, M. (2021). A novel mindful nature connectedness intervention improves paranoia but not anxiety in a nonclinical population. Ecopsychology, 13(4), 248-256. https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2020.0068

Passmore, H.-A., Martin, L., Richardson, M., White, M., Hunt, A., & Pahl, S. (2021). Parental/Guardians’ connection to nature better predicts children’s nature connectedness than visits or area-level characteristics. Ecopsychology, 13(2), 103–113.  https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2020.0033

Pritchard, A., Richardson, M., Sheffield, D., & McEwan, K. (2020). The relationship between nature connectedness and eudaimonic well-being: A meta-analysis. Journal of Happiness Studies: An Interdisciplinary Forum on Subjective Well-Being, 21(3), 1145–1167.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00118-6

Richardson, M. (2019). Beyond restoration: Considering emotion regulation in natural well-being. Ecopsychology, 11(2), 123–129.  https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2019.0012

Richardson, M., & Butler, C. W. (2022). Nature connectedness and biophilic design. Building Research & Information, 50(1–2), 36–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2021.2006594

Richardson, J. Dobson, D. J. Abson, R. Lumber, A. Hunt, R. Young & B. Moorhouse (2020) Applying the pathways to nature connectedness at a societal scale: a leverage points perspective, Ecosystems and People, 16(1), 387-401.

Richardson, M., & Hamlin, I. (2021). Nature engagement for human and nature’s well-being during the Corona pandemic. Journal of Public Mental Health, 20(2), 83–93.  https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-02-2021-0016

Richardson, M., Hamlin, I., Butler, C. W., Thomas, R., & Hunt, A. (2022). Actively noticing nature (not just time in nature) helps promote nature connectedness. Ecopsychology, 14(1), 8-16.

Richardson, M., Hamlin, I., Elliott, L. R., & White, M. P. (2022). Country-level factors in a failing relationship with nature: Nature connectedness as a key metric for a sustainable future. Ambio, 51(11), 2201–2213. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01744-w

Richardson, M., Hunt, A., Hinds, J., Bragg, R., Fido, D., Petronzi, D., Barbett, L., Clitherow, T., & White, M. (2019). A Measure of Nature Connectedness for Children and Adults: Validation, Performance, and Insights. Sustainability, 11(12), Article 12. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11123250

Richardson, M., Hussain, Z., & Griffiths, M. D. (2018). Problematic smartphone use, nature connectedness, and anxiety. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 7(1), 109–116.  https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.7.2018.10

Richardson, M., Maspero, M., Golightly, D., Sheffield, D., Staples, V., & Lumber, R. (2017). Nature: A new paradigm for well-being and ergonomics. Ergonomics, 60(2), 292–305.  https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2016.1157213

Richardson, M., & McEwan, K. (2018). 30 days wild and the relationships between engagement with nature’s beauty, nature connectedness and well-being. Frontiers in Psychology, 9.  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01500

Richardson, M., McEwan, K., & Garip, G. (2018). 30 days wild: Who benefits most? Journal of Public Mental Health, 17(3), 95–104.  https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-02-2018-0018

Richardson, M., Passmore, H.-A., Barbett, L., Lumber, R., Thomas, R., & Hunt, A. (2020). The green care code: How nature connectedness and simple activities help explain pro-nature conservation behaviours. People and Nature, 2(3), 821–839. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10117

Richardson, M., Passmore, H.-A., Lumber, R., Thomas, R., & Hunt, A. (2021). Moments, not minutes: The nature-wellbeing relationship. International Journal of Wellbeing, 11(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v11i1.1267

Richardson, M., Richardson, E., Hallam, J., & Ferguson, F. J. (2020). Opening doors to nature: Bringing calm and raising aspirations of vulnerable young people through nature-based intervention. The Humanistic Psychologist, 48(3), 284–297.  https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000148

Sheffield, D., Butler, C. W., & Richardson, M. (2022). Improving Nature Connectedness in Adults: A Meta-Analysis, Review and Agenda. Sustainability, 14(19), 12494. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912494

Van Gordon, W., Shonin, E., & Richardson, M. (2018). Mindfulness and nature. Mindfulness, 9(5), 1655–1658.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-0883-6