Nature recreation worldwide — from camping, hunting and fishing to park visitation — has declined sharply since the 1980s, and the negative consequences for nature and conservation could soon be profound, says a new study sponsored by The Nature Conservancy.
The study examines data from the United States, Japan and Spain on everything from backpacking to duck hunting. It builds upon earlier Conservancy-funded studies by Oliver Pergams of the University of Illinois-Chicago and Patricia Zaradic of the Environmental Leadership Program that correlated a decline in visits to U.S. National Parks with an increase in television, video game and Internet use.
Nature.org talked with Pergams and Zaradic about their latest study — and whether their findings mean that people no longer care about nature.
Nature.org: Has the trend away from nature recreation been accelerating worldwide since it began in 1981, or has it been a steady decline?
Oliver Pergams and Patricia Zaradic: The decline in some nature use seems to be accelerating, such as U.S. state park and national forest visits, as well as fishing. Others show a more steady decline, such as U.S. and Japanese national park visits and U.S. Bureau of Public Lands visits.
Most reliable long-term per capita visitation measures of nature recreation peaked between 1981 and 1991. They've declined about 1.2 percent per year since then, and have declined a total of between 18 percent and 25 percent.
Nature.org: Hunting, camping and fishing activity all declined during this period — but hiking and backpacking went up. So can't we just say that people are switching to daytrips for their natural encounters?
Pergams and Zaradic: No, the increase in hiking is just a very small countertrend. The average person went from hiking once every 12½ years to hiking once every 10 years.
On the other hand, the average U.S. person visits a state park two or three times every single year. The large decreases in more popular activities like state park visits far outweigh the small increase in hiking.
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