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. 2024 Jun 10;379(1903):20220330.
doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0330. Epub 2024 Apr 22.

Nurturing future leaders for nature: the example of the UK's National Education Nature Park

Jonny Hazell  1 , Edward Clarke  1
Affiliations

Nurturing future leaders for nature: the example of the UK's National Education Nature Park

Jonny Hazell et al. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. .

Abstract

This piece reviews the evidence on the effect that engaging with nature has on school-age children's future attitudes and behaviour towards nature. It also looks into the impact engaging with nature has on children and young people's physical, mental and personal development and the evidence on how much time children in England are spending in natural environments. It then presents a UK Government project, the National Education Nature Park (NENP), intended to increase children in England's access to nature by developing nature spaces within the grounds of educational institutions. It concludes with suggestions for how the implementation of the NENP could be used to learn more about the effect that engaging with nature has on children alongside understanding how school-based nature projects could benefit the local environment. This article is part of the theme issue 'Bringing nature into decision-making'.

Keywords: biodiversity; children; education; government; nature; schools.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors wrote this article as part of their employment with the Royal Society.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Land use in the UK (reproduced from the National Food Strategy 2021 [27,28]).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Cited by

  • Bringing nature into decision-making.
    Malhi Y, Daily GC. Malhi Y, et al. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2024 Jun 10;379(1903):20220313. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0313. Epub 2024 Apr 22. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2024. PMID: 38643790 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

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