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Scientist and non-scientists share a diversity of dimensions in their relations to urban nature

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Abstract

In the current biodiversity crisis, conservation scientists are urgently asked to involve themselves in education and communication initiatives toward non-scientists, who are considered as lacking knowledge to correctly value biodiversity. This is particularly argued in urban areas.

In this paper, we showed however with an anthropological survey that urban citizens do express a variety of relations toward surrounding urban nature. Then, in an independent survey, we showed that these ways of being connected with nature were shared by students in conservation sciences. Conservation scientists and non-scientific city dwellers have therefore much more in common than is taken for granted in their relations and perceptions of urban nature, notably concerning emotional, sensorial and memorial relationships. Acknowledging these common features in the scientific community could improve the communication between science and the general public about urban nature, help bridge the gap between science and the society and eventually participate to build a new social contract on nature.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the ODBU (Observatoire Départemental de la Biodiversité Urbaine) and Catherine Maurisson for their support, as well as M. Root-Bernstein for English editing. A. Piron was funded by the Department of Seine-Saint-Denis, through a pluri-annual partnership collaboration with the French National Museum of Natural History.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre d’Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (CESCO UMR 7204), Sorbonne Universités, MNHN, CNRS, UPMC, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, CP 135, 61 rue Buffon, 75005, Paris, France

    Anne-Caroline Prévot & Armony Piron

  2. Laboratory of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Quartier Agora, University of Liège, Place des Orateurs, B31, 4000, Liège, Belgium

    Véronique Servais

Authors
  1. Anne-Caroline Prévot
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  2. Véronique Servais
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  3. Armony Piron
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Correspondence to Anne-Caroline Prévot.

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Prévot, AC., Servais, V. & Piron, A. Scientist and non-scientists share a diversity of dimensions in their relations to urban nature. Urban Ecosyst 19, 1787–1799 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-016-0565-x

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