Britain has been named one of the least “nature-connected” countries in the world, ranking 55th out of 61 nations in a global study of how people relate to the natural world.
The research, involving 57,000 people and published in Ambio, found that Nepal is the most nature-connected nation, followed by Iran, South Africa, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. At the bottom of the list were the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan, and Spain.
Led by Prof Miles Richardson of the University of Derby, the study found that high levels of spirituality and faith strongly correlated with a close relationship to nature, while wealth, urbanisation, and internet use were linked to weaker connections.
Despite high environmental group membership, Britain’s deep cultural focus on rationality, economics, and science may have eroded its sense of belonging to the natural world, Richardson said.
He called for nature to be more deeply integrated into health care, business, and law — treating it as a “stakeholder” rather than just a resource. “It’s easy to build a park,” he said. “But we need to create sacred urban nature — spaces that reconnect people emotionally and spiritually with the living world.”
