The change of people's experiences of contact with nature in Osaka

Abstract

In determining the needed quality and quantity of natural environments in urbanized areas, the intensity of people's desire of having natural elements in their living circumstances should be taken into account. People's desire will be influenced by their experiences of contact with nature in the past.
For the purpose of glimpsing the change of people's interest in contact with nature, we questioned about 2000 Osaka people from various age groups about their history of doing or not-doing 31 kinds of directly or indirectly nature-related sports, children's play activities, etc. We obtained 1073 responses.
People's experiences in their childhood of collecting insects or wild plants as fire-flies, wort-weeds, mugworts, etc., decreased drastically in younger generations. Keeping chickens revealed the same tendency. We think that these are reflections of rapid disappearance of natural environments from Osaka.
There have been no significant change in nature-related children's play activities such as playing in swings, blowing soap bubbles, etc. Unlike other nature-related activities, collecting beetles belonged to this category. Skiing and playing tennis increased in all age groups except very old people.
Although people's experiences of contact with nature have considerably decreased in younger generations, we think it is important to furnish natural environments in urbanized areas, because the pleasure which people can obtain from contact with nature is immesurable.