Consciousness of Nature 2019

Since 2009, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety has conducted a representative population survey on the attitude of the German population towards nature and biodiversity every two years. The survey determines the population´s understanding of nature, how nature is perceived and experienced, what willingness there is to engage in nature conservation and how current issues of nature conservation policy are assessed.
In 2019, SINUS Markt- und Sozialforschung GmbH was responsible for conducting the face-to-face study.

Topics: 1. Protected areas: Associations with the topic of protected areas (open); familiarity with various terms (Natura 2000, national park, nature reserve, biosphere reserve/area, nature park, landscape conservation area, FFH areas, bird sanctuary, national natural landscapes, national natural heritage, water conservation areas, marine conservation areas); frequency of specifically seeking out the following categories of protected areas: Natura 2000, national park, nature reserve, biosphere reserve and nature park; visiting these protected areas in the immediate vicinity of the place of residence, as an excursion in the region, on holiday in Germany, on holiday outside Germany; most important goals and tasks of protected areas (3 mentions from a selection of keywords); information interest: particularly interesting information about protected areas (3 mentions); preferences for receiving information about the topic of protected areas (3 mentions); attribution of responsibility: Actors who should bear more responsibility in Germany for ensuring that protected areas can fulfil their tasks (federal government, federal states, municipalities, environmental and nature conservation organisations, citizens, churches and religious communities, agriculture, forestry, tourism, and industry, trade, other business); agreement with the following statements on protected areas (protected areas make a significant economic contribution to a region, I think it is good that there are areas where nature conservation is particularly important, there are already enough protected areas in Germany, protected areas are an important part of my homeland, Germany should do more politically to maintain and expand international protected area networks, protected areas are important to preserve nature for future generations, in the future protected areas will be more important for the conservation of species than they have been up to now, protected areas make a significant contribution to the identity of a region, protected areas leave people out because of too many bans).

2. Knowledge of species: basic assessment of own knowledge of species (I know the local flora well, I know the local fauna well, I would like to know more animal and plant species by name); interest in knowledge of species ( mention of 3 groups of species); places of learning where more knowledge about biodiversity should be taught (3 mentions).

3. Human-nature relationship: associations with the term nature (open mentions); attitude towards nature and nature conservation in general (it makes me happy to be in nature, I don´t feel good in nature, I am annoyed by the careless way many people treat nature, nature conservation as a duty of man, nature must not stand in the way of economic development, we must only use nature in such a way that this is also possible to the same extent for future generations, in times of economic crisis nature conservation must also manage with less money, the wilder nature, the better I like it, nature conservation is necessary to meet the challenges of climate change).

4. Genetic engineering: attitude towards genetic engineering (trust in scientists when they confirm the safety of the new genetic engineering methods, long-term consequences of the new genetic engineering methods are not yet foreseeable, animals and plants from the wild should not be deliberately genetically modified, possible effects on nature should always be investigated when plants are genetically modified with the new methods); importance of banning the use of genetically modified organisms in agriculture; opinion on the issue of genetic engineering in agriculture (demand for labelling of food from animals fed with genetically modified food, have no problem eating genetically modified food, genetic engineering in agriculture is an important component in the fight against world hunger).

5. Energy transition: Advocacy of the energy transiition; assessment of the changes to the landscape in the course of the energy transiition due to the possible increase in wind turbines on land, out at sea and on the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts, logging in forests, areas under maize cultivation, areas under rape cultivation, the number of high-voltage power lines, the number of lines laid as underground cables, the number of biogas plants, solar plants on meadows and fields, and solar plants on and on buildings; attitude towards the energy transition (the energy transition in Germany is a real community project, the energy transition distinguishes us in Germany from other countries, necessary to counter climate change, necessary to make Germany less dependent on importing energy and energy sources from other countries).

6. Biological diversity: awareness of the term biological diversity; personal meaning of the term biological diversity; convinced that biological diversity on earth is decreasing; preservation of biological diversity as a priority social task; willingness to do various things to protect biological diversity (change the brand of cosmetics or drugstore articles if their production endangers biological diversity, donate to the care and preservation of a protected area, actively participate in a nature conservation association, use a guidebook when shopping, e.g. informing about endangered fish species, making friends and acquaintances aware of biodiversity protection, informing about current developments in the field of biodiversity); attitude towards biodiversity (scale: personally perceived responsibility for the conservation of biological diversity, demand for a reduction in the use of land for settlements, industry and transport routes, promotes my well-being and quality of life, financial support for the efforts of poorer countries to conserve biological diversity by richer countries, personally perceived impairment by declining biological diversity, climate change threatens biological diversity).

7. Digitalisation: opinion on opportunities and risks of digitalisation in general; rather more opportunities vs. more risks of digitalisation for nature conservation; nature conservation should try to use the opportunities of digitalisation more for itself; use of an app is conceivable that informs about nature threats, successes of nature conservation or personal possibilities of action for nature.

8. Behavioural measure donation scale: Willingness to donate to nature conservation measures in a protected area in Germany in the event of winning 100 euros; decision on the donation amount and the concrete use of the donation (species and habitat protection directly on site, internet information to reach more people and nature experience and recreation for people); voluntary arbitrary division of the donation between the three measures mentioned.

Demography: sex; age; nationality German; other nationality mentioned; employment status; occupation if not employed; education: school or university degree; religiosity; religion or denomination; household size; total number of children; household net income (grouped); urbanisation level at time of childhood and adolescence.

Additionally coded were: Respondent ID; total interview duration in seconds; start time; weight; respective donation percentage grouped and mean percentage; federal state; city size category (BIK 5, 7 and 10 categories); county code.