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Wilderness under threat, says report

Fewer people are visiting national parks and taking part in outdoor activities such as camping, according to new research that suggests people are falling out of love with the natural world.

The study by U.S. conservationists discovered an “ongoing and fundamental shift away from nature-based recreation” that they say could threaten future efforts to preserve wilderness areas. The experts say people now make up to 25 per cent fewer trips than they did in the 1980s, and say the rise of computer games could be to blame.

Oliver Pergams, a biologist at the University of Illinois, and Patricia Zaradic of the U.S. Environmental Leadership Programme, compared records of visits with dozens of national parks, state parks and other public land across the U.S., Japan and Spain.

They found that the popularity of almost all activities peaked in the 1980s and then went into sharp decline. This drop reverses the trend seen in the post-war decades, which saw a boom in their popularity. Only the number of day hikes has increased. The Spanish data did not show a clear trend, but were for a relatively short period. The study is published on Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers said: “All major lines of evidence point to a general and fundamental shift away from people’s participation in nature-based recreation. The cultural shift away from nature recreation appears to extend outside of the U.S., to at least Japan, and the decline appears to have begun 1981-1991.”

They say the findings could represent a general shift away from interest in nature, and that “if this is the case, it is of enormous importance”. Contact with the environment produces more eco-friendly behaviour, they say, and people must be exposed to nature as children if they are to care about it as adults. They conclude: “Declining nature participation has crucial implications for conservation efforts. We think it probable that any decline in the value placed on natural areas and experiences will greatly reduce the value people place on conservation. Accordingly, it becomes less likely that attempts to raise awareness of the current biodiversity crisis [will succeed].” — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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