Evidence for a fundamental and pervasive shift away from.pdfVIP

Evidence for a fundamental and pervasive shift away from nature-based recreation Oliver R. W. Pergams*† and Patricia A. Zaradic‡ *Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois, 845 West Taylor Street, Chicago, IL 60607; and ‡Environmental Leadership Program, Delaware Valley, 116 Petrie Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 Edited by Gretchen C. Daily, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and approved December 17, 2007 (received for review October 17, 2007) After 50 years of steady increase, per capita visits to U.S. National and that we would likely find similar longitudinal declines in Parks have declined since 1987. To evaluate whether we are seeing visitation to other natural areas and reduced participation in a fundamental shift away from people’s interest in nature, we other nature-related activities. This work tests that hypothesis. If tested for similar longitudinal declines in 16 time series represent- it is indeed the case that people are, on average, visiting other ing four classes of nature participation variables: (i) visitation to natural areas less, it becomes likely that factors specific to U.S. various types of public lands in the U.S. and National Parks in Japan National Parks are not responsible for the decline. If we are also and Spain, (ii) number of various types of U.S. game licenses issued, seeing declines in the majority of other nature-related activities, (iii) indicators of time spent camping, and (iv) indicators of time it becomes quite likely that we are seeing a fundamental shift spent backpacking or hiking. The four variables with the greatest away from people’s interest in nature. per capita participation were visits to Japanese National Parks, U.S. If this is the case, it is of enormous importance. Kellert (4) State Parks, U.S. National Par