Nature, or ‘Vitamin N’, is essential for physical and mental well-being. However, many young people spend less time outside than prisoners. Beyond the health benefits, spending time in nature helps to turn the younger generations into stewards of nature. That’s why on this Earth Day, we must remind people to get an extra dose of this vitamin. 

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Nature, or “Vitamin N”, is humanity’s original medicine. Spending every day indoors, staring at a screen for hours, has become the norm. In reality, this is a modern experiment we are running on young people, and the results are coming in. We cannot separate the rise of youth ADHD, depression, diabetes and anxiety symptoms from our increased disconnection from the natural world. 

Beyond the obvious physical and psychological benefits of time spent in nature, we have forgotten nature’s original role as our primary teacher. The natural world teaches us eternal lessons about patience, resilience, adaptability, and stewardship. 

For older generations, lockdowns were seen as an opportunity to make the outdoors great again. In a Gallup poll from 2020, nearly half (48%) of all US adults said they would prefer to live in the countryside over a city or the suburb, up from 39% the year before. 

Yet the opposite can be said for children; outdoor time is on a permanent downward trend. A growing body of research suggests that children are spending far less time outside and more time on a screen. 

A 2018 study from Sanford Health News suggests that, on average, American children spend less than ten minutes a day in unstructured outdoor play compared to seven hours in front of a screen. Similarly, a global study revealed that children worldwide spend less time outside than prisoners. 

It is not hard to see why this is. Today, socialising happens online, while Covid-19 supercharged the rise of e-learning. Technology was undoubtedly a Godsend throughout the homebound doldrums of the pandemic. However, shaking its shackles is harder now the doors are open and the restrictions are lifted. 

Unfortunately, this lack of nature is not limited to children. Young professionals are spending less time outside too. Bupa research reveals that in the UK, 2 out 5 adults spend insufficient time outside, with limited access to green spaces. 

The same factors are at play. Those in education can do the bulk of their learning online. As many professions can be done online, workers have increasingly less impetus to get outside, even for their commute. Similarly, many young professionals are far more likely to live in urban jungles than anywhere near real ones. 

“Nature-deficit disorder” may sound like a pseudo-scientific, fad phrase. However, the research that supports it is robust. The word, along with Vitamin N, was coined by writer Richard Louv in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. He argued that many behavioural problems are caused simply by the sharp decline in how much time children spend outdoors. 

Studies show that time spent among plants or near water reduces stress and boosts attention spans. In fact, a meta-analysis of the relationship between nature exposure and health can improve brain activity, blood pressure, mental health, and sleep. 

Japan provides an interesting example. In the only nation to have a word for “death by overwork” (Karoshi), forest bathing, or basking in the presence of trees, seems to have profound psychological and physiological effects.

More on the topic: Forest Bathing: What Is it and How Does it Work?

Between the wildly popular Blue Zones Netflix documentary or techno-billionaire Bryan Johnson’s “Don’t die” mantra, longevity is the flavor of the month. Yet, we shouldn’t see nature as simply another companion to our workout regimes or multi-vitamin arsenal. Our interaction with nature should go deeper than that. 

That is because nature teaches patience. Increasingly, life does happen online, and it happens fast. Our modern brains, addicted to instant gratification, go haywire when our videos or web pages don’t load instantly. Growing is nature’s version of buffering; if you peer at a century-old oak tree, we know this magnificence did not occur overnight. 

Similarly, nature teaches us that not everything is controllable, nor should it be. We have near-total control over the pixels that appear on our screen. Minecraft and other “open-world” games give young, digital natives a sense of total dominion over our surroundings. 

Yet, in the entangled complexity of the natural world, random order is the norm. Our brain is soothed by the sound of rain or the hum of a waterfall because the rhythm is itself rhythmless. Equally, the bark of a tree or even the shape of a cloud exhibits the same designless design. 

Similarly, nature teaches us about the inevitability of change. We cannot prevent or avoid the change of the season, we can only prepare and adapt to it. The online world may give us the illusion that the total power of our surroundings is desirable. However, as many sages have taught us for millennia, change is the only constant. Nature reminds us of this everyday, if only we cared to look. 

Finally, nature teaches us the importance of stewardship. Never before has our natural world been under so much threat, and it is only by learning about something that we can truly understand the importance of its protection. As famously stated by Robert Pyle, “What is the extinction of a condor to a child who has never seen a wren?” 

Nature, or Vitamin N, is invariably the balm that can soothe young people’s technology-ridden bodies and minds. Yet just as nature can preserve us, we need to learn to preserve it. The protection of our natural world is a responsibility that now falls to the younger generations. That’s why this Earth Day, younger generations need to learn the value of nature, and get an extra dose of Vitamin N. 

The post Op-Ed: This Earth Day, We Mustn’t Forget the Nutrient Young People Are Deficient In – Vitamin N appeared first on Earth.Org.

As we look to protect our planet over the next decade, we cannot afford to ignore the role that indigenous people and local communities can and do play in the conservation of our most precious, biodiverse lands. In this op-ed, Daniel Kaul, CEO of nature conservation tourism company Natucate, discusses the role of Indigenous people in preserving ecosystems and preventing biodiversity loss as well as the necessity to protect their rights and conservation efforts.

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In the words of UN chief António Guterres, COP15 was a “historic peace pact with nature,” which would see 30% of land and sea protected by 2030, a target known as the 30×30. 

Many compared the “historic” COP15 agreement to the UN landmark Paris Agreement, with which countries agreed to limit global warming to 2C and ideally keep it closer to 1.5C, however, there is a glaring oversight. The agreement fell short of explicitly recognising indigenous people’s lands and territories as a separate category of conserved area, which ultimately threatens their rights.  

Indeed, when Indigenous spokespeople are only given approximately three minutes to contribute to negotiations and are expected to represent the 10,000 Traditional Nations across the globe, we can rightly ask ourselves whether Indigenous populations are really included in these talks at all. 

There is a fundamental misunderstanding at the core of the conservation conversation. 

In many places across the world, conservation happens as a result of local, indigenous populations, not in spite of them. Research shows that while the world’s 370 million indigenous people’s make up less than 5% of the world’s total human population, they manage over 25% of the world’s land surface, and support 80% of the world’s biodiversity. 

As we look to protect our planet over the next decade, we cannot afford to ignore the role that indigenous people and local communities can and do play in the conservation of our most precious, biodiverse lands. 

You might also like: The Remarkable Benefits of Biodiversity

According to a report by the ICCA Consortium, areas that remain ecologically intact due to conservation practices of Indigenous peoples or local communities cover an estimated 21% of land on Earth, whereas land that is protected by countries, and designated as conservation areas by bodies like UNESCO, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) or the Nature Conservancy cover just 14%. 

This is, of course, a question of justice. In the past, a failure to respect the value of Indigenous stewardship of our land has led to mass displacement; some estimates predict that some 10 million people in developing countries have been displaced by governments in efforts to conserve our wildlands. Even those who are not displaced find their traditional fishing and hunting practices outlawed, with consequences on their livelihoods. 

Take for example the Masaai people of the Serengeti, a geographical region in Africa, spanning northern Tanzania. When the Serengeti-Ngorongoro region was divided into the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Maasai herders were restricted from areas in the Serengeti national park and seasonal migration patterns were disrupted. This led to overgrazing, whereby too many wild animals graze the land, leading degraded soils, which can lead to reduced plant growth, and even desertification. 

Similarly, in countries like Australia, India, and Bali, native peoples have used controlled burning, grazing and construction of canals to maintain ecosystems. When these formally government protected areas can see these practises banned, the rise of invasive species frequently occurs. 

You might also like: Invasive Species: How Concerned Should We Be?

Centuries of ecological and spiritual insight is passed down through generations. For example, the 50,000 year-old Aboriginal principles of never exhausting the land fits perfectly with modern sustainability principles. 

Ultimately, we have to understand that conservation is an active process rather than a passive one. We have to understand that humans are not only guardians of the ecosystem, but an integral part of the ecosystem themselves. 

I have seen this first hand. As the owner and CEO of a conservation tourism company, I know that it is Indigenous populations who intuitively understand how best to preserve our land. And it is crucial that politicians and conference delegates understand that as well. 

As we approach the crucial decade for conservation we have ever faced, we must not be tempted to assume that all human populations have a detrimental impact on the land. A top-down approach to conservation will never work. Local understanding, wisdom and practices will remain a crucial tool in preserving the lands that our species rely on. 

We need more biodiversity funding for local communities to spend in whatever way they see fit. Canada’s historic $800 million in funding over seven years for Indigenous-led conservation projects should serve as inspiration. Startlingly few politicians have followed in Justin Trudeau’s footsteps. 

Similarly, we need members from local communities to be fairly represented at COP conferences, to relay what the reality is on the ground. Having only three minutes to represent the concerns of 10,000 Traditional Nations groups is nothing more than a tick-box exercise. Indigenous populations need meaningful inclusions in the dialogue, if we are to have a realistic chance of preventing a global mass extinction of species. 

Fundamentally, we need to imagine a model of conservation that includes those who have done it effectively millennia, instead of forgetting them from the equation.  

You might also like: The Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Climate Change Adaptation In Bangladesh and the Philippines

The post Indigenous People Are Essential for Preventing Biodiversity Loss. They Mustn’t Be Sidelined. appeared first on Earth.Org.