Finding Nature

The crises of climate warming and wildlife loss have one thing at their heart: the failing relationship between people and nature. Our pathways to nature connectedness strongly suggest that artistic engagement with nature is key to building a new relationship with nature. So, it’s exciting to report that for many months I’ve been involved with a new project to create a national arts programme that creatively encourages people to explore their relationship with nature and connect to it.

The Oak Project is a partnership between Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the University of Derby and the Bronze Oak Project Ltd, a not-for-profit that promotes nature connection through art. The Oak Project is a programme that explores our relationship with the natural world and builds connection to nature through arts, culture and creativity. We believe an arts programme can:

• Increase connection to nature across society.
• Make nature more relevant to everyday lives.
• Increase public action on the environment.

Heather and Ivan Morison, Silence – Alone in a World of Wounds, 2021. Commissioned by Yorkshire Sculpture Park on behalf of The Oak Project. Photography by Jonty Wilde.

Over the next five years, we will pioneer arts-participation to create kinship with nature and aim to inspire and motivate public action for nature and climate. It all starts on World Environment Day on Saturday 5 June 2021 when the Oak Project unveils its first artist commission, Silence – Alone in a World of Wounds, hosted at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP), by artists Heather and Ivan Morison from Studio Morison.

Informed by research evidence from the Nature Connectedness Research Group at the University of Derby, the artists have developed a sculptural space – a ring, set within a stand of birch trees. It aims to create a place of solitary communion with the natural world, creating an area of calm contemplation. Silence – Alone in a World of Wounds will invite visitors to stop and connect, to consider and experience, and to listen to their natural surroundings. Over time, the work will become part of the landscape as the weather contributes to its decomposition, leaving only a slight indent and trace of a circle in the ground in years to come.

Heather and Ivan Morison, Silence – Alone in a World of Wounds, 2021. Commissioned by Yorkshire Sculpture Park on behalf of The Oak Project. Photography by Jonty Wilde.

Silence – Alone in a World of Wounds taps into several aspects of research into the human-nature relationship. Its circular form and sense of calm reflects the contentment and connection circle of the three circles model of emotion regulation. A model used in our research to demonstrate how nature helps manage our moods, bringing balance to the circles of drive and threat.

How nature helps balance our emotions

At times the modern world can feel like a constant pursuit of goals and avoidance of threat. We can also find ourselves at the centre of a battle for our attention. When we do pause an advert or our phone often demands attention. Silence creates a space free of those distractions. Where nature can come to the fore. Where we can retune – after all our senses evolved to make sense of the natural world. Seeing the leaves of the birch, hearing their movement in the breeze, touching the bark and tuning into nature returns us to our origins. No wonder that noticing nature is essential to forming a close relationship with nature. Noticing nature can also improve our mental wellbeing and explains the actions we take for nature.

Silence is also a place for reflection on our relationships with nature – both good and bad. Those five types of relationship that lead to a closer relationship with nature – noticing nature, its beauty, the joy and calm it brings and what it means in your life such that you’ll consider what can you do for nature.

Heather and Ivan Morison, Silence – Alone in a World of Wounds, 2021. Commissioned by Yorkshire Sculpture Park on behalf of The Oak Project. Photography by Jonty Wilde.

Perhaps people will also reflect on the wounds inflicted by our (utilitarian and dominionistic) relationships with nature that do harm. Our desire to use and control nature has left scars. Holes dug deep into the earth have fuelled the warming of the atmosphere, cloaking the natural world. Ancient woodlands are felled as new lines are drawn across the landscape. Concrete walls span our valleys, drowning lands. The land itself always managed, rarely wild. The wildlife that brings joy, beauty and meaning to our world is diminished and lost. A failing relationship with nature that saps our own wellbeing as a nation as we fall out of love with nature.

That is why Silence – Alone in a World of Wounds, and the work of the Oak Project to come, aims to build a new relationship with nature. Prompting reflection on the wounds, but a celebration of nature, because a close connection with nature is fundamental to both feeling well and a sustainable future.

During the restrictions to control the coronavirus pandemic people have visited and noticed nature more. We were curious to find out how nature benefited the nation’s mental wellbeing during the coronavirus restrictions. The new People and Nature Survey (PANS) developed by Natural England provided some useful data. Building on some of our previous research, the survey also allowed us to compare how longer-term physical and psychological relationship with nature, and shorter-term visits and noticing of nature were associated with wellbeing – and as human and nature’s wellbeing is rarely considered together, pro-nature behaviours. The research has now been published in the Journal of Public Mental Health and available to download here.

Noticing nature matters

PANS asked several thousand members of the public questions about how connected they are to nature, how often they visit natural spaces and how much they notice nature. It found that visits to nature had increased by 40%, noticing nature had increased by 74%. The survey also collected information on pro-nature conservation behaviours and several wellbeing measures: happiness, loneliness, life satisfaction and the sense that one’s life is worthwhile.

First of all, we analysed the extent to which these wellbeing variables and pro-nature conservation behaviours are predicted by people’s long-term relationship with nature: the time spent in nature over the past 12 months and nature connectedness. We found that both more time spent in nature and a greater connection to nature were positively related to several positive outcomes: life satisfaction, happiness, a worthwhile life and pro-nature conservation behaviours – with noticing nature tending to contribute a little more to the outcomes.

We then turned our attention to experiences of nature during the pandemic restrictions. Our analyses revealed that both the number of recent visits to green spaces and increases in noticing nature were associated with increases in life satisfaction, happiness and the sense of one’s life being worthwhile. The more people spent time in and noticed nature during the pandemic, the greater their wellbeing – with noticing nature tending to contribute a little more than visits. Increases in noticing nature, but not visits, were also positively associated with pro-nature conservation behaviours and greater loneliness. So noticing nature makes you lonely!? Nope, as a cross-sectional survey the direction of this relationship is unknown, rather than increased noticing of nature increasing loneliness, the findings could well reflect that as loneliness increases people turn to nature and spend more time noticing it, buffering the effect of reduced social connectedness that has been found in other research.

Finally, we examined all of these variables together so that we could better understand the relationship between wellbeing and the quality of long-term and short-term relationships with nature. Interestingly, recent nature visits didn’t account for any increase in wellbeing over and above that caused by long-term visits. However, recent increases in noticing nature were associated with a greater sense of having a worthwhile life and more pro-nature conservation behaviours.

These results highlight the importance of having a long-term relationship with nature, but also suggest that recent increases in noticing nature can bring psychological benefits regardless of one’s historical relationship with nature. This finding is supported by our previous empirical research that found prompting people to notice nature led to significant improvements in mental health.

Another finding to emphasise is the benefit to pro-nature conservation behaviours. Higher levels of pro-nature behaviours were best explained by higher levels of nature connectedness and noticing nature. This supports our previous work on the Green Care Code.

The results confirm emerging and important findings: (2020 Study & 2021 Study) that connection to and simple engagement with nature bring benefits over and above those derived from simply spending time in nature. As well as spending time in nature, we also need to tune into nature and develop greater nature connectedness if we want to maximise the benefits to our own, and nature’s wellbeing – perhaps even more so during the pandemic.

Richardson, M. & Hamlin, I. (2021) Nature Engagement for Human and Nature’s Wellbeing during the Corona Pandemic. Journal of Public Mental Health. DOI: 10.1108/JPMH-02-2021-0016

Today the Environment Secretary, George Eustice, set out plans for nature’s recovery. The full speech on amending the Environment Bill to require an additional legally binding target for species abundance is available here. The actions set out in the speech to restore nature are an important step. Getting the details right will help nature’s recovery, but can also deliver benefits for human wellbeing through creating a closer relationship with nature.

The Environment Secretary noted how the events of the last year have led people to appreciate the difference that nature makes to our lives more than ever before. There is an increased awareness of the link between our own health and that of the planet. Sadly, the UK is one of the most nature depleted countries and that is strongly related to lower levels of nature connectedness and wellbeing.

In our upcoming paper on people’s engagement with nature during the pandemic we found that the increase in noticing nature explained wellbeing to a greater extent than the increase in visits to nature. Indeed, when people are prompted to notice nature it can deliver clinically significant benefits to mental health. We also know that people have an inherent ability to spot greater biodiversity – and that brings positive emotions. Nature’s recovery will create more nature to notice. And if that nature is visible it can help build a closer relationship with nature that is good for wellbeing – and encourages pro-nature behaviours too.

Nature’s recovery: More nature to notice

The speech stated the need to work on habitats in both protected sites and the wider countryside. Clearly, that scale is essential to deliver nature’s recovery. However, there was little on the places where people live, urban areas and schools for example. Corridors to bring nature from the wider countryside to people could do great things for wellbeing.

The renewed emphasis on nature’s recovery and call for creative public policy thinking does allow opportunities to maximise the benefits. It would be great to see:

1 – Everyday biodiversity to unite human and nature’s wellbeing – bringing visible wildlife to the places people live to foster pro-nature behaviour, nature connectedness and wellbeing.

2 – The design of urban spaces to foster meaningful engagement with the abundance of nature on everyone’s doorstep. Design to prompt people to notice, engage and care for nature.

3 – New woodlands as new spaces for meaningful engagement and delivery of nature based social prescriptions.

4 – Creation of a life-long relationship with nature – bringing nature’s recovery into secondary schools to address the ‘teenage dip’ and support adolescent wellbeing.

Building back greener can help create a new human-nature relationship through delivering nature everywhere for everyone.

The theme of Mental Health Awareness Week this year is Nature. I’ve been working with the Mental Health Foundation on the associated research report, some activities for the week and events that take place during the week. There are a number of resources to get involved and the full research report we worked on is available here.

The first half of this blog includes ways people can take part in the week. The second half outlines recommendations from the Mental Health and Nature Policy Briefing on what needs to happen more widely – available here.

What you can do…

During Mental Health Awareness Week we’re asking everyone to #ConnectWithNature to support their mental health – bringing nature into your daily life can really make a difference. We know that:

• Being around nature is good for our mental health
• Connecting with nature can help prevent mental health problems
• Everyone should have access to nature to achieve good mental health for all

During the week we’d like people to recognise and grow their connection with nature. Whether you’re out for a walk, on your way to work, or spending the day indoors, take a moment to notice and celebrate nature in your daily life. To help there are some ‘top tips’ and a nature journal to download.

You might also find some inspiration in the resources we put together to support mental wellbeing during the coronavirus restrictions, here you’ll find:

• Noticing the ‘Good Things in Nature’
• How to Explore your relationship with nature
• An audio nature meditation
• Immersive Virtual Nature

What more needs to happen…

The Mental Health and Nature Policy Briefing from the Mental Health Foundation gives an overview of key issues and sets out detailed policy recommendations. In their associated survey they found a clear public appetite for change. Three quarters (75%) of people think the Government should be aiming to encourage people to do more to connect with nature. The briefing notes that when measured together, a meaningful connection with nature is often more important than visits to, and time spent in nature. Therefore, the report makes the case for “prioritising connection with nature as the main goal for our nature and mental health policies”. The recommendations for the ways that Government policy can facilitate greater nature connection fall into five areas.

1 – Facilitating connection with nature

Recent evidence into the contribution of nature visits and nature connection shows that it is connection that best explains key mental wellbeing outcomes. There is a need to move beyond access to nature to engaging with the natural world. Therefore, the briefing recommends that nature connection is the core principle that drives all policies relating to nature and mental health.

2 – Protecting the natural environment and restoring biodiversity

As my blog on recent research showed, the UK is not a nation of nature lovers and that’s strongly associated with low levels of biodiversity. The Mental Health and Nature Policy Briefing recommends the UK governments set ambitious interim and outcome targets to halt the decline of species and habitats in the UK by 2030. Then the delivery of biodiversity gain should prioritise deprived areas to bring the wellbeing benefits of nature to the communities that need it most.

3 – Improving access to nature

Clearly, access to nature is necessary to build a deeper connection, the report recommends access to nature should be guaranteed for the widest range of people. This includes improving safety and the quality of green spaces and parks.

4 – Using urban design to improve the visibility and availability of nature

Beyond formal green spaces and parks there is a need to facilitate building an every day connection with nature. These recommendations note how urban nature matters. It is recommended that the National Planning Policy Framework in England is updated to go beyond “conserving and enhancing” the existing natural environment to creating new, visible nature for the purpose of supporting people’s mental health and wellbeing.

5 – Building a life-long relationship with nature

Our research that shows a pronounced dip in young people’s connection with nature is noted and policies that build a long-term connection with nature for children are recommended. This includes outdoor activities at school, with nature being a part of the learning process. School grounds should provide access to nature and the Government should review and improve natural spaces of secondary schools.

The Mental Health and Nature Policy Briefing is excellent and builds on our previous guidance. I recommend reading the report in full, remembering to take a break and notice nature while you do.

One of the findings of a major new research study published in Scientific Reports shows that the UK is not a nation of nature lovers. Our supposed love of nature is often expressed, from our poets, to naturalists, in our love of nature documentaries, and millions being members of nature conservation organisations. However, this new research across 18 countries suggests strongly that in reality the UK has a failing relationship with nature. We visit nature much less than people in other countries. Our connection to the rest of nature is much lower than elsewhere.

That was the result that grabbed my attention, but the research did much more. So, in sum, before returning to our supposed love of nature, the survey of 16,000 people explored associations between mental health, exposure to different natural settings and nature connectedness, across season and country. The research found that people who lived in greener/coastal neighbourhoods reported higher wellbeing, but this association largely disappeared when recreational visits were controlled for. Frequency of recent recreational visits to nature were all positively associated with well-being – Its worth noting that levels of noticing nature weren’t included in this study, but our recent research found noticing nature explained wellbeing better than recent visits’. Nature connectedness was also positively associated with positive wellbeing and was, along with green space visits, associated with a lower likelihood of using medication for depression. By contrast inland-blue space visits were associated with a greater likelihood of using anxiety medication.

From a nature connectedness perspective, the authors conclude that the “Results also offer support for initiatives e.g. education programs, aimed at increasing levels of psychological connectedness to the natural world, irrespective of direct exposure, for mental health as well as ecological reasons,” – although I’d replace ‘education’ with ‘engagement’ it’s good to have further confirmation that work in this area needs to go beyond access and visits. As we’ve seen in recent research, when considered in concert with visits to nature, nature connectedness plays an often more significant role in mental wellbeing, pro-nature and pro-environmental behaviours.

Returning to the headline, and looking at the two charts from the paper, the UK was amongst the lowest nations for nature connectedness (16th of 18) and nature visits (17th of 18) – and also wellbeing (17th of 18). The level of nature connectedness was 20% below the highest nation. It’s natural to ask, why?

Country level relationship between positive well-being (0–100) and Green space visits in last 4 weeks. From White et al. (2021).

Country level relationship between positive well-being (0–100) and nature connectedness (1–7). From White et al. (2021).

From a pathways to nature connectedness perspective, it would suggest that the types of relationship unrelated to nature connection dominate. The pathways research was based on Kellert’s (1993) nine values of biophilia. Five of the nine types of human-nature relationship were pathways to nature connectedness; four were unrelated to nature connectedness. These were fear of nature, dominion over nature, utilitarian use of nature and a purely scientific relationship.

Nature is often seen as a resource (utility), a source of challenges to conquer (dominion), presented in terms of facts and figures (science), or as a threat (fear of nature). These types of relationship are common, often emphasised within capitalistic societies and can be seen as essential pathways for human survival and progress that, unchecked, have led to nature’s decline – as shown by the red arrow in Figure 1.

Figure 1. A graphical summary of the types of human-nature relationships, nature connectedness and their outcomes. Key: Pro-env. = pro-environmental (carbon & resource use reduction); Pro-nature = pro-nature conservation (wildlife habitat creation).

I’m no expert on such things, but the UK was at the heart of the industrial revolution, and adept at exploiting natural resources. It’s also interesting to note that former parts of the British Empire also have low levels of nature connectedness (Canada, US, Australia, Ireland, HK). This suggests an attitude towards nature that we exported and that persists through to this day.

From a day-to-day perspective do we in the UK care for nature? Weedkillers are promoted (and purchased) as garden essentials. Our cultural products refer less and less to nature, but more and more to the individual. Do we increasingly care more about ourselves than the wider natural world?

Garden Essentials?

For a little more insight we’ve done some further analysis of the data presented in the paper. We looked at biodiversity, population density, urbanisation and tree cover for the 18 countries and how these factors related to nature connectedness and visits. We found a very strong correlation between biodiversity (National Biodiversity Index) and nature connectedness – and nature visits. The more wildlife there is in a country the greater the love of nature and likelihood people will go and visit it. Urbanisation and tree cover had no significant relationship and population density was weak once Hong Kong was removed from the analysis.

The UK has much lower levels of biodiversity and nature connectedness – and we know that the two are related. Our previous research has shown that people are good a spotting biodiversity and that higher levels of biodiversity are linked to greater wellbeing – and more visible biodiversity helps build nature connectedness. And increased nature connectedness through noticing nature leads to greater wellbeing.

Yet, when we do visit more biodiverse spaces do we truly respect nature? There were many reports of littering in lockdown and ‘dogs on leads’ signs are often ignored or pulled down at nature reserves despite the evidence that the presence of dogs harms wildlife. Would we litter or exercise a dog in a churchyard? It is time to recognise a deep lack of respect for nature, accept our failed relationship with nature and ask challenging questions.

What’s the way forward? Our relationship with nature needs to improve. Biodiversity needs to improve. And the plans to do so need greater integration. We know nature connectedness is built through noticing nature and increasing levels of biodiversity clearly provides more nature to notice, but people don’t notice nature.

There’s a battle for our attention. Companies spend millions competing for it. When brand X grabs attention from brand Y, there must be less noticing of nature. Nature has no marketing budget. No new styles – this year’s robin is the same as last years. Similarly, social media is designed to engage us. Waiting at the bus stop, technology wins the battle for attention and those who use their smartphone more have lower levels of nature connectedness. Perhaps a tax on advertising can be used to promote the restoration and noticing of nature? Yet, the countries with higher levels of nature connectedness have adverts, social media and smartphones too.

The fight for our attention

These are also modern phenomena; we can also ask if people in the UK have ever lived in harmony with nature? Did the relationship with nature start to fail during the industrial revolution? Or after the enlightenment – a period marked by an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism. Yet again though, countries with a closer relationship with nature are not devoid of science and industry.

So what explains the UK’s lack of love for nature? There’s more work to do, but from a pathways perspective, dominion over nature and utilitarian use of nature are dominating the positive relationships based on noticing nature, beauty, emotion, meaning and caring for nature. This will lead to a lack of nature, further reinforcing the disconnect. To become a nation of nature lovers, there’s a need for greater biodiversity, bringing nature to where people live and a celebration of it each and every day.

White, M.P., Elliott, L.R., Grellier, J. et al. Associations between green/blue spaces and mental health across 18 countries. Sci Rep 11, 8903 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87675-0