Can Citizen Science Reverse the Extinction of Experience?

Opportunities for people to interact with nature have declined over the last century because most people now live in urban areas and spend most of their time indoors. And while adults not only experience less nature, they are also less likely to take their children outdoors and shape their attitudes towards nature, thus creating a negative cycle. In 1978, environmentalist Robert Pyle coined the phrase "Extinction of Experience" (EOE) to describe this alienation of nature, and argued that this process is one of the most biggest causes of the biodiversity crisis. Four decades later, the question arises: how can we break the cycle and start reversing EOE?

In citizen science programs, people participate in real research, helping scientists to conduct studies at the local, regional, and even global scale. In a study published today, researchers from North Carolina State University, Rutgers University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology offer a citizen science based on nature as a way to reconnect people to the nature. For people to move on to the next stage and develop the desire to preserve nature, they must not only go out or learn about nature, but also develop emotional bonds and relationships. 39, empathy for nature. Because citizen science programs typically involve data collection, they encourage participants to research, observe, and study the natural elements that surround them. According to co-author Caren Cooper, deputy director of the Biodiversity Lab at the NC Museum of Natural Science, "Citizen-based science based on nature provides a structure and purpose that could help people to notice nature and the environment. appreciate in their daily life.

To search for evidence of these trends in all programs and the ability of citizen science to reach non-scientific audiences, researchers studied participants in citizen science programs. They reviewed 975 articles, badyzed the results of studies of participants' motivations and / or results in nature-based programs, and found that nature-based citizen science promotes the cognitive and emotional aspects of experiences. in nature.

Stephanie Schuttler, lead author of the study and scientist of the eMammal citizen science camera trapping program, saw anecdotal evidence of this reversal through her work incorporating the search for photographic traps in the clbades of the kindergarten to grade 12. "Teachers would tell me how excited and excited the students were about wildlife in their school clbades," says Schuttler. "They did not know that their campus was thriving with coyotes, foxes and deer." The study conducted by Schuttler shows that citizen science has increased the knowledge, skills, interest and curiosity of participants for nature, and even produced positive behavioral changes. For example, a study found that Garden Butterfly Watch participants changed gardening practices to make their gardens more wildlife-friendly. Another study found that participants in the coastal observation and observation team program started cleaning the beaches during surveys, although this never happened. been suggested by the facilitators. has just started and most programs do not reach audiences who are not already engaged in science or nature. Only 26 of the 975 articles evaluated the motivations and / or outcomes of participants, and only one of these articles studied children, the largest demographic group in the EOE reversal. "Many studies have been filled with astonishing stories about how citizen science has awakened participants to the nature around them, but most have not looked at the results," notes Schuttler. "To fully badess the capacity of nature-based citizen science to affect people, we encourage citizen science programs to formally study their participants and not just study the system in question."

In addition, most citizen science programs attracted or even recruited environmentally conscious participants who were likely to spend more time outside than the average person. "If we really want to reconnect people with nature, we have to preach beyond the choir and attract people who are not already interested in science and / or nature," says Schuttler. And as badocative co-author Assaf Shwartz of Israel's Technion-Institute of Technology states: "The best way to avoid the extinction of the experiment is to create meaningful experiences of nature in the places where we all live and work: the cities. This is a great way to achieve this goal because participation can strengthen people's sense of commitment to protecting nature.

Fortunately, other factors seem to influence participants' involvement in citizen science. The desire for well-being, stewardship and community can be a gateway for people, an important first step in connecting people to nature. Although nature-based citizen science programs offer people opportunities to interact with nature, more in-depth research into the mechanisms that underpin this relationship is needed to reinforce our understanding of the diverse outcomes of science. citizen. Note to editors: The summary of the study follows:

"Bridging the Nature Gap: Can Citizen Science Reverse the Extinction of Experience?" [19659002] Authors: Stephanie G. Schuttler, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences; Amanda E. Sorensen, Rutgers University; Rebecca C. Jordan, Rutgers University; Caren Cooper, North Carolina Museum of Natural Science and North Carolina State University; and Assaf Shwartz, Technion-Israeli Institute of Technology

The study was supported by the grant from the National Science Foundation # 1319293.

Published: July 3, 2018, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment [19659002] DOI: 10.1002 / fee.1826

Abstract: The opportunities that people have to interact with nature have declined over the last century because many now live in urban areas and spend most of their time inside. Conservation attitudes and behaviors largely depend on experiences with nature, and this "extinction of experience" (EOE) is a threat to biodiversity conservation. In this article, we propose that citizen science, an increasingly popular way of integrating public awareness into data collection, could potentially mitigate EOE. Our review of the literature on volunteer motivations and / or results indicates that nature-based citizen science (NBCS) promotes the cognitive and emotional aspects of experiences in nature. Although these experiences may change participants' attitudes and behaviors towards the natural world, this field remains little studied. Thus, while NBCS can complement efforts to increase opportunities for interaction between people and nature, more in-depth research on the mechanisms underlying this relationship is needed to reinforce our understanding of the various outcomes of NBCS. citizen science. and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of the press releases published on EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information via the EurekAlert system.