Urban versus rural? The effects of residential status on species identification skills and connection to nature

1. Urbanization and urban lifestyles increasingly disconnect people from
nature in a process that was termed the ‘extinction of experience’. This
loss of human-nature interactions can undermine both cognitive (ecological
knowledge) and affective (emotional connection to nature) relations to
nature, further impacting capabilities to experience, care for, benefit
from and act to protect nature. Yet, the extent to which the urban life
influences both cognitive and affective relations to nature, remains
poorly understood and research is confined to a few countries and
cultures. 2. We explored how cognitive and affective relations to nature
can be related to people’s childhood and current place of residency. We
expected that urban dwellers, who have less opportunities to experience
nature than their rural counterparts, will be less connected to nature and
demonstrate lower ecological knowledge than their rural counterparts. 3.
We conducted four surveys in Israel, in urban and rural settings between
2015 and 2018 (N= 1706) to measure and compare (urban vs. rural) the
following variables: (1) species identification skills (correctly
identified); (2) familiarity (recognized), as two measures of cognitive
relation with nature and (3) nature relatedness, as a measure of emotional
connection to nature. 4. The ability to identify common plant, bird and
butterfly species was poor in general (Av.=3.83 out of 12), and lower for
urban dwellers (Av.=2.48) compared to their rural counterparts (Av.=6.56).
Differences in correct species identifications between urban and rural
dwellers varied with taxa and peaked for butterflies (only 26 respondents
managed to identify one species or more). We also identified an important
gap between familiarity and species identification skills, especially for
urban residents. Finally, people who currently live or used to live in
rural areas during their childhood had higher scores of nature relatedness
than their urban counterparts. 5. Our results highlight that decreased
opportunity to interact with nature reduces cognitive and affective
relations to nature. Such reductions can affect the overall preferences
for human-nature relationships and exacerbate a pervasive negative cycle
that modifies relational values such as, care for nature, sense of
belonging, place and identity that influence both humans well-being and
environmental stewardship.