Finding Nature

By Miles Richardson, Yves Hayaux Du Tilly and Carly Butler.

Many businesses are committing to zero carbon targets, and some have committed to becoming ‘nature positive’. This Zero Carbon: Max Nature strategy recognises the two key elements of the environmental crises, that is, biodiversity loss and climate warming. Global institutions such as the UN recognise that both these issues are caused by the failing human relationship with nature.

Every nation that meets the needs of its population does so through over consuming natural resources, by being in debt to nature. In 2020 the World Economic Forum’s Nature Risk Rising report noted that business as usual is no longer an option. The WEF 2022 insight report into transforming the relationship with nature in cities and subsequent Nature Positive city guidance (WEF, 2024) provides further recognition of the unsustainable imbalance between what we take from nature and what we give back to nature as a species.

Biodiversity loss is now one of the top global risks reported by business leaders in the next ten years, the top four risks are all environmental (WEF Global Risks Report 2024). More than half of the world’s GDP ($44 trillion) is moderately or highly dependent on nature or its services. Risks are both direct and indirect – from reliance on nature for business activities, to disruption of customers, markets, and regulations, through to societal disruption (WEF, Nature Risk Rising, 2020).

The loss of ecosystems does not only imply the need to change the way we live, but also the inevitable necessity to shift the manner in which we consume and exchange goods and services. The foregoing represents a systemic change with financial risk and substantial disruption to businesses that will face the challenge of shifting from doing business “as usual”. It is not until businesses understand the risk and problem they are facing that they will be able to identify the opportunities arising from the environmental crises, that will permit them not only to contribute to protect and restore nature but also to find their purpose as social and economic contributors. This can range from avoiding impacts on nature, to active recovery of the state of nature, to contributing to system-wide change.

There is a need for directors to understand the risks and business threats and to counter them by creating new ways of offering services and providing goods in a sustainable manner, that is, without compromising the possibility of continuing offering such services and providing such goods in the future, hence, generating the resilience created by undertaking business with nature. This is what being sustainable means.

We can no longer prioritise the dominant value of living from nature, whilst devaluing the importance of living with, in and as nature (IPBES). The overemphasis on living from nature has led to unsustainable use and abuse of natural resources, with catastrophic implications for the planet and all its inhabitants. We need to find more sustainable ways of living from nature, not doing so is not risky, it is catastrophic.  We must now live and do business with, in and as nature.

Economic growth has come at nature’s expense. Yet the loss of nature is the biggest threat to ambitions for economic growth, and to a liveable planet. For a sustainable future, economic functions need to be integrated with social and ecological functions – where cities are living systems and all their elements, such as their economy, governance, infrastructure, and wellbeing function in and as nature, becoming nature positive.

The need for sustainable and nature-positive business brings opportunities. The WEF reports aim to support businesses and cities living in harmony with nature. Noting that innovative business models should restore or utilise healthy ecosystems, and need to replace business models where it is cheaper to destroy nature than to protect it. The WEF’s Future of Nature and Business report identifies dozens of emerging nature-positive business opportunities, which could generate up to $10 trillion, and create 395 million jobs by 2030.

The Stockholm+50 evidence review also outlines sustainable business models include scaling those that focus on services delivered, rather than products made, whenever possible. Supply chains should be better for both humans and the natural world. For workers and the consumer, a sustainable lifestyle should be an easy choice.

The adoption of sustainable business models and practices can contribute to restore the human-nature relationship. Like most people living the current failing relationship with nature, many businesspeople will feel a separation from nature.

Since the scientific revolution and enlightenment, we’re schooled to think of a distinction between humans and nature coexisting in separate boxes, in both our thinking and in our actions, spending very little time in and with the rest of nature, for example.

However, recent research has shown that the loss of this bond with nature matters. Not only for the wellbeing of the natural world through exploitation and reduced pro-environmental behaviours, but the wellbeing of people. A closer relationship with nature helps people feel good and feel they are living a meaningful life, not merely existing.

Equally, businesspeople who have a closer relationship with nature are more likely to support and champion the adoption of sustainable and regenerative business models and practices. While facts and figures about the environmental crises and the risks of nature on business and the economy may scare us into action, having an emotional connection with nature and appreciation of the interconnectedness of human and planetary wellbeing are key drivers for change.

Within a business setting, people with purpose and who feel good are an asset in themselves but will also support nature positive business direction. A close relationship with nature can also be key in developing a sense of place – successful businesses often have a home its staff and customers care about.

Finally, a sense of interconnectedness and appreciation of interrelationships is good for systems thinking, a foundation for successful decision making. People who live closer to nature tend to be better at more complex systems thinking.

Being nature positive is aligned with the fair distribution of abundance which is a characteristic trait of nature. The centuries old industrial mindset of living from and exploiting nature presents the greatest threat for humankind and represents an existential risk. There are new opportunities for growth of sustainable business models that allow us to live and do business with, in and as nature.

The new Nature’s Workforce initiative that grew from the Save Our Wild Isles films offers activities, resources and guides for employees to help their workplace be a force for nature, with suggestions on how to start conversations about nature and business. Last year we launched a resource to help businesses and other organisations move towards sustainability by a focus on improving relationships with nature: The Nature Connected Organisations Handbook: A guide for connecting organisations with nature for sustainable futures and workplace wellbeing. The handbook offers a framework for the growth of nature connection and guidance on auditing and developing practices. By growing nature connection amongst staff, designing structures and processes that support closer relationships with nature, and creating a culture that has a respect and care for nature at its heart, businesses can take action that protects and restores nature and human relationships with nature for sustainable futures.

When close to someone it is natural to worry when they are unwell. So, it makes sense that people who are closer to nature are worried about biodiversity loss and climate change. Given one benefit of increasing nature connection is mental wellbeing, this could appear to be a conundrum. If we love, we care. If we care, we worry. And worry can lead to distress. It is important to understand these relationships.

There’s growing interest in both climate anxiety and nature connection, but they also need to be considered together. A few studies have started to do this and untangle the relationships. Thomson and Roach (2023) did indeed find a relationship between nature connection and climate worry. And between climate worry and psychological distress. They also found that nature connection was linked to both individual and collective climate action.

Similarly, Curll et al (2022) found a link between nature connection and climate anxiety, which was associated with psychological distress. Wullenkord et al (2024) have also found nature connection to be a risk factor in climate anxiety. This suggests a troubling paradox, to address climate change there is a need for action, which can be promoted through nature connection, but that could well increase climate anxiety – although nature connection also brings mental wellbeing benefits.

However, Thomson and Roach (2023) also found climate knowledge played a role in these relationships, and Whitmarsh et al. (2022) have studied this further. They found widespread climate worry, but far lower levels of climate anxiety, an important distinction. They found the strongest predictor of climate anxiety was climate information seeking behaviour. Environmental information seeking behaviour is related to risk and associated with climate anxiety. Reese et al. (2023) combined some of these aspects, finding that higher risk perception, but not nature connectedness, predicts climate anxiety. Climate anxiety revolves around notions of threat.

Curll et al also found that taking individual climate action was related to reduced psychological distress, although collective action had the opposite effect, perhaps via increasing information and risk perception depending on the tone of the collective action.

Taken together, the results suggest that seeking to improve nature connection may well be less problematic for increasing psychological distress than might first appear. This work also suggests the importance of giving people the opportunity and agency to take action, one of the pathways to nature connection. There is a need to focus on solutions and positive action, rather than fear and threat. Focussing on threat engages people, but at a cost. Further, the climate narrative can often appear as a life without, through less travel for example. The narrative of a new relationship with nature is about living with, such that people and the more than human world flourish together.

You find out more on creating a new relationship with nature in our nature connection handbook, connected organisations handbook, policy briefing, Silk Mill vision and my book Reconnection.

Thomson, E. E., & Roach, S. P. (2023). The relationships among nature connectedness, climate anxiety, climate action, climate knowledge, and mental health. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1241400.

Reese, G., Rueff, M., & Wullenkord, M. C. (2023). No risk, no fun… ctioning? Perceived climate risks, but not nature connectedness or self-efficacy predict climate anxiety. Frontiers in Climate, 5, 1158451.

Whitmarsh, L., Player, L., Jiongco, A., James, M., Williams, M., Marks, E., & Kennedy-Williams, P. (2022). Climate anxiety: What predicts it and how is it related to climate action?. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 83, 101866.

Wullenkord, M. C., Johansson, M., Loy, L. S., Menzel, C., & Reese, G. (2024). Go out or stress out? Exploring nature connectedness and cumulative stress as resilience and vulnerability factors in different manifestations of climate anxiety. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 102278.

Curll, S. L., Stanley, S. K., Brown, P. M., & O’Brien, L. V. (2022). Nature connectedness in the climate change context: Implications for climate action and mental health. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 8(4), 448–460. https://doi.org/10.1037/tps0000329

Lutz, P. K., Passmore, H. A., Howell, A. J., Zelenski, J. M., Yang, Y., & Richardson, M. (2023). The continuum of eco-anxiety responses: A preliminary investigation of its nomological network. Collabra: Psychology, 9(1), 67838.

After a few years of hibernation, our Nature Connections conference is back 24 & 25th June 2024 for a 6^th instalment! Since 2015 the event has taken place at the University of Derby, however, this year we’re heading to a great venue by river in Derby city centre. The Museum of Making at the Silk Mill is the site of the world’s first factory, a starting point of an industrial relationship with nature based on use and control, so a great place to start to here the very latest on forging a new relationship with nature.

Our keynotes speakers are Marian Spain (CEO of Natural England), Fiona Holland and Caroline Harvey on evaluating the impact of nature-based interventions for children and young people and Miles Richardson, plus closing reflections from Ryan Lumber.

As ever Nature Connections brings together researchers and practitioners interested in nature connection to share and discuss the latest research, ideas, and applications in the field.

The talks and a range of posters on the 24^th June will focus on nature connection and the human-nature relationship, sharing the latest projects involved with engaging people with nature. Highlighting the contribution to research, practice, people and nature. Themes will include nature connection for children and young people, education, health and wellbeing.  Tuesday 25 June has optional morning workshops. Further info and booking here.

The Silk Mill

Also, Associate Professor Caroline Locke is preparing to curate a collection of work to run alongside Nature Connections. The exhibition will take place at Derby Cathedral close to the Silk Mill. and will include work by the artists: John Newling, Rachel Jacobs, Beth Kettle, Craig Fisher, Angela Bartram, Chris Barnes, Stephanie Rushton, Paula McCloskey, Ismail Khokon, Debra Swann, Fiona Carruthers as well as her own ‘Tree Charter Bell’ which is a church tower bell used as part of tree planting ceremonies. Entitled “Our Stories Are Wild”, the exhibition will bring together artworks which focus on the human-nature relationship. Many of the works reveal an emotional and spiritual connection with our environment and explore themes of care, hope and responsibility.

Our relationship with nature is failing. Staggering declines in biodiversity, together with climate change show the negative impact of human behaviour over generations. Globally, institutions are recognising the need to fix the human-nature relationship. Here in the UK, we’ve got further to go than most nations. The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries on Earth and a population with low levels of nature connection.

Our new policy briefing introduces the concept of nature connectedness as a catalyst for change, and how fostering a deeper relationship with nature that goes beyond simply spending time outdoors. It then offers ideas that can help foster nature connection at societal scale. You can access your own copy of the briefing here.

Nature Connectedness helps unite both human and nature’s wellbeing. Research shows that individuals with a stronger connection to nature are more likely to engage in pro-environmental behaviours and connecting with nature promotes greater well-being. Nature connection should be a pillar of a sustainable future.

Nature connectedness benefits both people and nature

This briefing proposes integrating nature connectedness into various policy areas, creating a virtuous cycle where increased connection leads to environmental protection, ultimately fostering stronger connections. The policy suggestions in the briefing centre around:

• Reframing Health and Wellbeing
• Building Nature Connected Communities
• Cultivating Nature Connection in Education
• Protecting and Restoring the Environment
• Enable Nature Connected Travel
• Celebrate the Human-Nature Relationship

Possible types of relationships with nature and their outcomes

The concept is simple, shifting from our existing exploitative relationship with nature, to a new relationship. By shifting our focus towards fostering nature connectedness, we can create a future where human and environmental well-being are intertwined. Implementing these policy recommendations across various sectors can initiate a positive and sustainable transformation in our relationship with the natural world. Download the briefing to learn more about the concept of nature connectedness and explore ways to integrate it into your daily life. Together, we can create a future where people and nature thrive in harmony.

A guest blog by Dr Carly Butler, Researcher in Nature Connectedness, University of Derby.

Everyday noticing and appreciation of the more-than-human world is vital for developing a sense of nature connectedness. Yet, a 2020 study by University of Derby and the National Trust found that in the United Kingdom, people often don’t pay attention to nature, with nearly two-thirds of people reporting that they rarely or never listen to bird song or watch butterflies. These findings reflect (and may partially explain) the low levels of nature connectedness in the UK. They are worrying as these simple ways of engaging with nature are so important in the growth of closer relationships with nature, which in turn are vital for the wellbeing of both people and planet. People with a stronger sense of nature connectedness are more likely to feel happy, satisfied with life, and to take action to help nature. A culture in which people don’t notice butterflies is not well-resourced to deal with the meta-crisis.  As discussed in a previous blog post on the ‘butterfly affect’, small acts of noticing can potentially have big impacts.

Past research from the Nature Connectedness Research Group has found that taking part in citizen-science activities, like counting pollinators or birds, leads to increased nature connectedness and wellbeing. The impact of taking part was boosted by experimental manipulations of people’s noticing and appreciation of nature – by noticing three good things in nature, or rating birds for feelings of joy they invoked. These studies demonstrated the value of citizen science activities extend beyond the contributions to conservation – they can benefit humans themselves and improve the human-nature relationship.

Our latest paper, just published in Biological Conservation, reports on a collaboration with Butterfly Conservation that looked at the impact of a real-world citizen science project. The annual Big Butterfly Count is one of the world’s largest nature-based citizen science projects, in which more than 60,000 people spend fifteen minutes on a sunny day to count and record how many butterfly species they see during that time. In 2022, people who signed up for the Big Butterfly Count were also invited to take part in our research. Those who took part completed a survey before and after the Big Butterfly Count period (N=382), and then again at follow-up a few weeks later (N=345), which explored whether the simple act of watching and counting butterflies had an effect on nature connectedness, wellbeing and people’s tendency to notice nature and butterflies.

We found that after taking part in the Big Butterfly Count, nature connectedness was increased, people were more likely to notice butterflies and other nature, and anxiety was decreased by nearly ten percent. At follow-up we found increased wellbeing and butterfly noticing. The impact of taking part was greater when people experienced stronger emotions during the count – the more joy, compassion, interest, and fascination they felt, the greater the increase in nature connectedness and noticing.

Participants were also invited to comment on their experience of taking part in the count. Many reported feelings of joy, wonder, and calm and shared the pleasure they received from watching the butterflies in a focused and sustained way. There were also many reports of feelings of sadness and concern, particularly when seeing few butterflies to count, and comparing their count to previous years. However, these feelings often motivated ongoing and renewed actions for nature – commitment to continue taking part in the count, and planting for pollinators.

The research shows that a real-world citizen science project designed primarily to gather scientific data and raise awareness of butterfly conservation can also improve people’s wellbeing and relationship with nature. Beyond that, it reminds us that counting butterflies is not just a matter of counting butterflies – it is an emotional engagement with the more-than-human world, an opportunity for close focused attention toward nature, and an invitation to tune into the beauty and wonder of these magnificent flying creatures. Such moments with nature renew our relationships with the wider living world, helping us feel closer to and more a part of nature. These reminders of our connections with, and appreciation for, the more-than-human have never been more necessary.

The time we spend helping nature by contributing to the monitoring of its health and vitality, is time that also helps our own health and vitality. Conservation and regenerative activities are perhaps as important for humans as they are for nature, with the potential to encourage a cycle of noticing and connection and care. The wellbeing and nature connection benefits of citizen science deserve to be more widely recognised and developed through integrated nature and health initiatives – bringing wildlife monitoring into green social prescribing for example, and championing the wellbeing benefits of counting wildlife. With Local Nature Recovery Strategies developing around the country, it’s important that communities are involved in supporting and monitoring that recovery. A system that values nature and people will support spaces where plants for pollinators can thrive, and where people can watch the pollinators so that they too can thrive, while helping to monitor the health of the more-than-human world.

Citizen science offers fantastic opportunities for people to contribute to scientific research, and to develop their knowledge and skills. Our research highlights the additional benefits of such projects – their invitations for communities to notice nature, to gift their attention to the more-than-human and to recognise, cherish, and deepen their emotional connection to nature. One butterfly at a time.

C.W. Butler, I. Hamlin, M. Richardson, M. Lowe, R. Fox (2024). Connection for conservation: The impact of counting butterflies on nature connectedness and wellbeing in citizen scientists,
Biological Conservation, 110497.