Evaluating the influence of nature connection and values on conservation attitudes at a tropical deforestation frontier

Abstract

Inner phenomena, such as personal motivations for pursuing sustainability, may be critical levers for improving conservation outcomes. Most conservation research and policies, however, focus on external phenomena (e.g., ecological change or economic processes). We explored the factors shaping 9 conservation attitudes toward forest and wildlife protection among colonist farmers around an Amazonian deforestation frontier. Our data comprised 241 face‐to‐face quantitative surveys, complemented with qualitative insights from open‐ended questionnaire responses and opportunistic semistructured interviews. To account for the full spectrum of possible inner motivations, we employed measures of nature connection (indicating biospheric motivation) and personal values organized around the traditionalism (traditionalist through to high openness to change) and universalism dimensions (egoistic through to altruistic motivations). We used averaged beta‐binomial generalized linear models to assess the role of external factors (socioeconomic, sociodemographic, and environmental) and personal (inner) motivations on the variation in attitudes. Each attitude was modeled separately. The relative importance of each predictor was judged by the proportion of models where it appeared as significant. Proconservation views were expressed by the majority (at least 65%) of the respondents in 7 out of the 9 attitude models. The most consistent predictors were emotional nature connection and personal values (significant in 4–6 out of 9 models), rather than external phenomena (significant in 0–5 models). However, the poorest farmers had lower scores on the agreement with prioritizing nature over development (𝛽 = –0.52, 95% CI: –0.96 to –0.07). Qualitative data also indicated that economic barriers hinder forest conservation on farms. These results suggest that biospheric, traditionalistic, and altruistic motivations promote people's proconservation attitudes, but nurturing these latent motivations is unlikely to improve conservation outcomes if material poverty remains unaddressed. Integrating the inner–outer perspective into conservation thinking and practical interventions could foster environmental stewardship and increase human well‐being.

A time with e-Natureza (e-Nature): a model of nature-based health interventions as a complex adaptive system

“…A recent study that explored the inner and outer values on the conservation attitudes of farmers from an Amazonia deforestation frontier ( Mikołajczak et al, 2023 ) evidenced that inner motivations are capable of nurture pro-environment behaviors, based on self-transcendence and self-improvement values. Although extern factors, like poverty, material and health insecurity and less years of formal education may support economic development over nature conservation.…”

The relationship of Amazonian adolescents with natural environments before and during social isolation in the COVID-19 pandemic (La relación de los adolescentes del Amazonas con los entornos naturales antes y después del aislamiento social en la pandemia de COVID-19)

“…The INS's conceptual model recognizes the inclusion of these entities that represent a sense of cognitive connection and affection associated with a concrete action of responsibility directed towards nature. This scale is widely used in research on CN worldwide (Tam, 2013), including with Brazilian samples (Mikołajczak, 2019). In Survey 2, questions were added about practices developed during the lockdown (I take care of my house plants; I look for news about nature; I am concerned about environmental problems) and the desire to go elsewhere (to walk in natural environments; to bathe in the igarapé [small river]; stroll at the mall).…”

“…El modelo conceptual de la INS reconoce la inclusión de aquellas entidades que representan un sentido de conexión cognitiva y afectiva asociada a una acción concreta de responsabilidad dirigida a la naturaleza. Esta escala se usa ampliamente en la investigación sobre la CN en todo el mundo (Tam, 2013), incluyendo muestras brasileñas (Mikołajczak, 2019). En la Encuesta 2, se añadieron preguntas sobre las prácticas desarrolladas durante el confinamiento (Cuido mis plantas domésticas; Busco noticias sobre la naturaleza; Me preocupan los problemas medioambientales) y el deseo de ir a algún otro lugar (caminar en entornos naturales; bañarme en un igarapé [río pequeño]; pasear por el centro comercial).…”

Characterizing personalized ecologies

“…Connection to nature has been found to be linked to many things, including socioeconomics (Kleespies & Dierkes, 2023; Mikusiński et al., 2023), components of health and well‐being (Capaldi et al., 2014; Nisbet et al., 2020), interest in, knowledge of, and positive conservation attitudes towards, nature (Lim et al., 2022; Mikołajczak et al., 2023; Neurohr et al., 2023), and participation in nature‐based activities (Pocock et al., 2023). Their connection to nature can influence the benefit that people experience from interactions with nature, with these benefits being more pronounced when the connection is stronger (Chang et al., 2020; Iwińska et al., 2023; Oh et al., 2021; Rosa et al., 2018; Shwartz et al., 2023).…”