Green by nature

Green voting, participatory science or membership of associations fighting to protect nature... associations... These indicators of greater environmental awareness are more widespread among people living near a nature park. Did you suspect it? It's now been thanks to an original study co-published by Victor Cazalis, a doctoral student at the Centre d'écologie fonctionnelle et évolutive in Montpellier.

What if humans, like plant and animal species, benefited from the positive effects of protected natural areas? This is the original question posed by Victor Cazalis, a doctoral student at CEFE in Montpellier. While working on his thesis on the effectiveness of protected areas for birds, this young ecologist turned to the social sciences, proposing to "apply the same methodology to humans as to birds. In other words, compare behaviors inside and outside protected areas to see what impact they can have."

The same method as for birds

The study, conducted with Anne-Caroline Prévot, a psychology researcher at the Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (CESCO), covered 16,000 French communes with populations of over 500. "For each of them, we measured the distance to the nearest nature park, taking into account national and regional parks. Then we analyzed behavior as a function of this distance," explains Victor Cazalis.

The two researchers looked at three types of behavior that might indicate ecological awareness: voting for an ecologist party, joining associations that fight for the protection of nature, in this case the Ligue de protection des oiseaux (LPO) and the WWF, and signing up to the Oiseaux des jardins participative science program, which offers non-scientists the chance to contribute to the bird census by observing birds in their own garden.

Twice as many LPO memberships

It's not a question of saying that these behaviours are more ecological than others, but just of constituting a broad and complementary range of residents' sensibilities," explains the researcher. Participatory science, like membership of the LPO, reflects a very local interest in biodiversity. WWF is on a more international scale, while voting is much more transversal, with a societal implication," adds the student.

And the model works. The results are clear and concordant: "For all these behaviours, there is a clear decrease the further you are from the protected area," notes Victor Cazalis. There are twice as many LPO members in a village located in a protected area than in a commune 100 km away. The proportions are almost identical for WWF and participatory science programs. As for the environmentalist vote, it is 31 times higher in protected areas than outside.

A direct effect of protection

In the course of this study, the two researchers were also able to isolate some interesting variables. They wondered, for example, whether these results were due to the protected areas themselves, or more simply to proximity to nature. " We removed this 'nature' effect by comparing villages located in a protected area with villages located far from a park but enjoying a roughly similar naturalness", explains the ecologist. A comparison that confirms the impact of nature parks, and not just nature, on our behavior.

Another interesting variable is age, and in particular the proportion of retired people. "There are more memberships in associations and participatory science programs in cities with a high proportion of retired people, but there are fewer votes for the environment. The same applies to the size of the town, since the researchers found that "the larger the town, the greater the number of environmental votes and WWF memberships", whereas participatory science and associations such as the LPO are more likely to be found in villages. The socio-economic level of communities must also be taken into account, since"we know that the higher the average wage, the more pro-environmental behavior we find", notes the researcher.

Reduce psychological distance

How do we interpret this vast study? For Victor Cazalis, protected areas "provide those who live in them with more opportunities to experience nature, which reduces what we call psychological distance, that feeling of disconnection from nature that influences our ecological sensitivity and behavior".

He also sees the positive effects of the communication and educational initiatives put in place by the parks. "There are lots of organized outings, conferences, explanatory panels... The simple fact of entering a park and reading: 'You are entering the Cévennes Nature Park', already makes you aware that you are in a special place." So what are you doing for your next vacation?