Motion 128

Addressing biodiversity loss, climate change and plastic pollution requires a shift in human norms, values, beliefs and behaviours across the globe.
In recent years, advocates have begun calling on the need to restore human-nature connectedness to advance the transformative change required to prevent irreversible damage to our planet.
Ongoing efforts like the #NatureForAll initiative and the IUCN Inter-Commission Task Force on Behaviour Change are helping IUCN incorporate behavioural, educational and communication knowledge into its programs, but more is needed.
Resolution WCC-2016-Res-085 asked the IUCN to facilitate and promote opportunities for people to experience and connect with nature and encourage them to take concrete actions for nature. This led to the creation of #NatureForAll, a movement grounded in evidence, as synthesized in the report Home to Us All, that people’s relationship with nature profoundly influences their behaviours toward the Earth. It is now made up of more than 600 partners from close to 90 countries representing diverse sectors.
Resolution WCC-2020-064, on the other hand, called for the need to address conservation as a behavioural challenge and to incorporate action alongside raising awareness. In 2023, the CEC and SSC created the Task Force on Behaviour Change, leveraging the IUCN and its membership, to drive best practice in the way the conservation movement influences human behaviour towards a more biodiversity-friendly future.
A recent article, Changing Human Behavior to Conserve Biodiversity (the first output of the above-mentioned task force), notes that “conservation of biodiversity is above all else an exercise in human persuasion”. The authors argue that linking behaviour to action is paramount to reversing biodiversity loss, but lament that conservation remains predominantly a natural science discipline, with the social and behavioral sciences playing a secondary role.
The field of biodiversity conservation has worked to influence people’s decisions with little integration of behavioural and communication research, which are crucial for successful efforts because they help us understand human behaviour, motivations and decision-making processes.
Thousands of individuals and organizations across the world (many of them IUCN members and #NatureForAll partners) are implementing programs that help people learn about and experience nature. But how do we know whether this translates into action for conserving nature? Do people who experience nature (e.g., through parks, zoos, outdoor classrooms, in their own backyards, or even virtually?) feel more connected with nature?
Now is time to take the next step, measuring the global impact of that work, by the IUCN, its members, its commissions, individual commission members and others.
Relevant links
www.natureforall.global
IUCN Inter-Commission Task Force on Behaviour Change: https://www.conservationbehaviourchange.org/
Connecting With Nature to Care for Ourselves and the Earth: https://natureforall.global/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/ConnectingwithNature.pdf
Home to Us All: https://natureforall.global/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/HometoUsAll.pdf)
IPBES Transformative Change Assessment: https://www.ipbes.net/transformative-change/media-release
Nature 2030: one nature, one future: https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/49292
Changing Human Behavior to Conserve Biodiversity: https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-environ-111522-103028)