Biodiversity conservation and promotion can play important roles in achieving climate neutrality, as the climate crisis is in many ways intertwined with the biodiversity crisis. Addressing both the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis is particularly important in a country like Denmark, which has one of the world's highest carbon footprints per capita and is one of the world's most intensively cultivated and densely populated countries with very little biodiversity. Addressing these crises will enable space for non-human life to thrive in intensively cultivated countries. To address the problems related to climate change and loss of biodiversity, substantial societal and cultural changes are needed, and it is becoming increasingly clear that more information and knowledge is not enough. Existing narratives, norms, habits and emotional communities play crucial roles in the lack of action and change. Most Danish citizens are fully informed about the threats. In this project, we propose that studies of ecosystem formation in relation to biodiversity and the cultivation of wild nature can generate new knowledge relevant to the sustainable transformation of society in the face of climate change. Promoting eco-formation is an enabling condition for citizens in a democratic society to choose to move towards more sustainable ways of life with a reduced carbon footprint in the long term. Gaining the support and buy-in of local communities for biodiversity conservation is an important part of this. Biodiverse areas have the potential to help develop, foster and empower change in the relationship between people and the environment in Denmark. Scientific biodiversity conservation initiatives cannot stand alone, as culturally embedded attitudes and norms regarding wild nature, wildlife and biodiversity strongly influence citizens’ and communities’ reactions to initiatives such as rewilding.
In CUHRE’s second cornerstone project, we explore how eco-education can be promoted among citizens and local communities in Denmark and how new eco-friendly attitudes, norms and practices towards and in wild nature can be promoted – and what barriers need to be overcome, especially in terms of attitudes, norms and practices in relation to the cultivation of wild nature, wildlife, rewilding and national parks in Denmark. Cultivating and promoting eco-education and new relationships with wild nature and wildlife among citizens is a difficult task when you consider that the Danish landscape is largely lacking wild (uncontrolled) non-human wildlife and nature. This makes Denmark an excellent test case for identifying barriers to eco-education and developing educational formats that can help foster eco-education, as Danish citizens have little experience or tradition of dealing with wilderness and wild nature.
By examining how people’s relationships with, reactions to, and activities in wild nature, wildlife and national parks are cultivated, mediated and practised in Denmark, we can contribute to identifying barriers to green and climate-friendly transition and identify how best to teach eco-building in relation to biodiversity and cultivated wild nature, wildlife and nature national parks. This is a prerequisite for changing attitudes and practices in a green and life-friendly direction and designing learning activities that can move citizens and society in a green, climate-friendly direction with a reduced carbon footprint and increased biodiversity in a long-term perspective – in other words, to foster a robust eco-formation in Denmark.
Specifically, we work with the roles that emotions, narratives and media play in citizens’ reactions to, relations to, cultivations of, activities in, and mediations of cultivated wild nature in Denmark, and the roles that emotions, narratives and media play in ecological education activities in relation to national parks. Our hypothesis is that narratives, emotions and media play a role in these and in the creation of eco-formation. Our research questions are:
- What narratives can be identified in citizen and media interactions with cultivated wild nature, and how are emotional communities formed in these relationships and interactions?
- How is eco-formation in Denmark shaped by socio-cultural and mediated narratives – and related emotional expressions and communities – about wild nature, wild animals and wilderness?
- How can more climate-friendly ecosystem formation be promoted in relation to cultivated wild nature?
This subproject is a collaboration between the following CUHRE researchers:
Subproject A – Laura Feldt, Julie Emontspool
Subproject B – Laura Feldt, Erik Mygind du Plessis, a PhD fellow
Subproject C – Nikolaj Elf, Martin Hauberg Lund-Laugesen