Urban Biodiversity, City-Dwellers and Conservation: How Does an Outdoor Activity Day Affect the Human-Nature Relationship?

Urban conservation education programs aim to increase knowledge and awareness towards biodiversity and to change attitudes and behaviour towards the environment. However, to date, few urban conservation education studies have evaluated to what extent these programs have managed to achieve their goals. In this study, we experimentally explored the influence of an urban conservation activity day on individual knowledge, awareness and actions towards biodiversity, in both the short and longer term

Observations of Everyday Biodiversity: a New Perspective for Conservation?

Public involvement is one of the keys to achieving biodiversity conservation goals. Increasing public involvement in conservation activities requires investigation into what makes people more aware of nature, especially in an ordinary and local context, in their everyday lives. Among the initiatives developed to increase the public's awareness of conservation issues and individual environmental practices, citizen-science programs are based on an invitation to observe and survey nature. In our study, we examined the consequences of participation in a participative citizen-science program that takes place in an everyday-life context on individuals' knowledge and beliefs about biodiversity. This program, the French Garden Butterflies Watch, is addressed to the non-scientifically literate public and is run by the French National Museum of Natural History (MNHN). We examined the ways increased knowledge or strengthened beliefs or ideas about biodiversity can foster pro-conservation attitudes and behavior. We explored how repeated interactions with nature influence the development of knowledge in this area, and how these repeated observations of biodiversity become integrated into complex cognitive processes over time and space. We showed that repeated observations of nature can increase individual knowledge and beliefs. Our results brought out three important conclusions: (1) conservation issues must be integrated into a wider network of social relationships; (2) observing everyday nature often makes people consider its functional and evolutionary characteristics; and (3) scientific knowledge seems necessary to help people to develop their own position on ecosystems

Routine experiences of nature in cities can increase personal commitment toward biodiversity conservation

International audienceThis study examines individual commitment to biodiversity during adulthood. We studied the interrelations between everyday experiences of nature, knowledge about biodiversity, connectedness with nature, and implementation of specific pro-biodiversity practices, through a survey covering 473 adults in Paris surroundings (France). More specifically, we showed that people involved in experiences of nature in which attentiveness to biodiversity is explicit (citizen science, nature watch association, environmental association) have more knowledge about biodiversity and conservation than both people involved in experiences of nature in which attention to biodiversity remains implicit (community garden, allotment, community-supported agriculture), and people without such kinds of experience of nature. However, we found that people experiencing nature as part of a daily routine, whatever the type of experience, were more connected to nature and more likely to implement active pro-biodiversity practices. With this interdisciplinary study that links conservation biology and conservation psychology, we help understand more precisely the levels of commitment of urban and suburban adults toward biodiversity conservation. Citation: Prévot A.C., Cheval H., Raymond R. et Cosquer A. 2018. Routine experiences of nature in cities can increase personal commitment toward biodiversity conservation. Biological conservation 226: 1-8

Sports de nature et apprentissage de l'environnement : réflexions sur un programme de recherche-action concernant la sensibilisation aux espaces naturels protégés

National audienc

Sports de nature et apprentissage de l'environnement : réflexions sur un programme de recherche-action concernant la sensibilisation aux espaces naturels protégés

National audienc

La segmentation (typologisation) des perceptions et des attitudes des visiteurs comme outil d'information pour la gestion et les stratégies de communication ciblées dans les zones côtières et marines protégées

International audienceCommunication is a strategic management lever for promoting user knowledge, understanding, acceptance, support, and conservation-related pro-environmental behavior within Coastal and Marine Protected Areas (CMPAs). But while user segmentation is considered a traditional operational tool for targeting user audiences effectively within terrestrial protected areas, research also highlights a low level of concrete application to CMPAs. Based on Public Perceptions Research literature, this study explores a panel of eight theoretical variables that reflect the multidimensional character of recreationists’ perceptions of CMPAs and how the related results could inform appropriate CMPA communication strategies. Onsite face-to-face interviews with 1,000 users were conducted for seven recreational activities (hiking, surfing, scuba-diving, boating, sailing, kite-surfing, kayaking) across a total of ten local sites. Results revealed that despite sharing a common motivation for being in contact with nature, recreationists expressed diverse perceptions and attitudes toward CMPAs and management, which can be divided into five segments: “CMPA-Not-convinced” (31.3% of all recreationists), “CMPA-Local Conservator” (11.5%), “CMPA-Not-Responsible” (12.7%), “CMPA-Passers-by” (20.1%) and “CMPA-Convinced” (24.4%). Findings show the value of visitor segmentation as an operational tool to inform CMPA management and communication strategies in a context of low knowledge about visitor audiences

Limited awareness by recreation users’ of French marine protected area: is there a flip side to the soft management approach?

International audienc

Sports de Nature et Aires marines Protégées (« SNAP ») : quelques enseignements de l’enquête sur le rapport des pratiquants à l’environnement.

International audienc

Limited awareness by recreation users’ of French marine protected area: is there a flip side to the soft management approach?

International audienc

Sports de nature dans les aires protégées littorales et marines. Profils des pratiquants, motivations à la pratique, rapports à la nature. Résultats d’une enquête nationale (2016-2018). Fiches de synthèse.

Résultats bruts d'une enquête menée auprès de 1000 pratiquants de sport de nature afin d'évaluer les sensibilités environnementale