The concept of human nature-connection is becoming increasingly important as researchers try to understand how individuals' choices and behaviours affect biodiversity. The current study examines garden owners' emotional connection to nature, their knowledge and their way of working in the garden. The researchers show that it is precisely the experiential part of the relationship with nature – the feeling of belonging in nature and the confidence in tending to a garden – that plays a decisive role in what actions are taken. This experience-based relationship with nature in turn affects how well the garden benefits pollinators.
Anna Persson, a researcher at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Lund University, believes that it is not our opinions about nature that make the biggest difference, but our concrete experiences and our feelings about nature.
'We can read about how nature works or have thoughts about how we should take care of it, but in order for us to act, we need to experience it. Reason alone is not enough,' says Anna Persson.
There is a good chance that someone who has a good relationship with nature will have developed feelings of care toward their garden and choose work in the garden even if it happens to be raining. Or that they have learned to distinguish weeds from sprouting garden plants in the soil. These everyday points of contact with nature can ultimately create gardens with richer biodiversity where pollinators thrive.
The dual risks of urbanisation
While gardens can become important refuges for pollinators, research shows that extensive urbanisation in society can pose dual risks. On the one hand, habitats for insects disappear as cities become denser, and on the other hand, people's direct contact with nature decreases.
In the study, the researchers also found that urbanisation affects different gardening practices in different ways. For garden meadows, areas with tall grass and wildflowers, urbanisation had a direct negative impact on pollinator activity, while flower beds were not negatively affected. This difference highlights both that urbanisation itself is negative for many pollinators and that gardens in the city may need different solutions to benefit pollinators than gardens in the countryside.
Long-lived plantings benefit the city's pollinators
The study shows that the gardening practices that are most beneficial have one thing in common: they have been around for a long time. Long-lived flower plantings in urban environments are particularly valuable because they provide continuity in environments that are otherwise changing rapidly.
In suburburban and more rural areas, however, species rich garden meadows play a greater role. These environments benefit from the fact that there are still wild plants and pollinators in the surrounding area that can interact with the garden.
The research also shows that gardens that combine flower plantings with fruit and vegetable cultivation attract more pollinators, an effect that researchers describe as “habitat complementation”. A diversity of plants simply leads to more continuous flowering and more types of resources for different pollinators.
Increased contact with nature and nature education for children
A key conclusion of the study is that practical contact with nature needs to be safeguarded. The researchers see a clear link between experience-based relationships with nature, gardening knowledge and the choice of measures that benefit pollinators. When people no longer learn to recognise plants, understand soil or interpret nature's signals, a knowledge base that was previously passed down between generations is lost.
Efforts are needed at several levels to safeguard people's relationship with nature. For example, the researchers emphasise the it is important to give children and young people better opportunities for contact with nature and nature education in schools.
‘Previous research shows that contact with nature early in life is crucial. Otherwise, we risk losing practical experience of nature in just a few generations,’ says Anna Persson.
She believes that local authorities have a particularly important role to play here.
‘Local authorities cannot control private gardens, but they can think innovatively to influence green spaces such as parks and commons by creating more community farming areas and nature-oriented parks,’ says Anna Persson.
