Nature-based solutions as community-owned woodlands: Leveraging nature connectedness and stewardship intentions to inform governance models

Murray Park, a community-owned woodland in the northeast of Scotland, is a living lab in the COEVOLVERS project, where we promote a process of co-creation to develop governance models that can be explored and widened to serve the needs of both humans and more-than-humans. Community-owned woodlands play an important role in the health and well-being of individuals and communities, while also contributing to the enhancement of affordances for more-than-humans. It is valuable to encourage natural community spaces to thrive and become resilient. Currently, Murray Park’s Trustees consist mostly of retirees with little involvement from younger generations – a concern is whether younger people are interested in becoming stewards of natural spaces. Through an online survey using a representative sample (n = 512), we gathered rich data from across Scotland. Participants indicated their intentions to support various environmental causes (e.g., safeguarding wildlife), and in various ways (e.g., donating, volunteering, protesting). Our data helps us to paint the picture of “who” may get involved in stewarding natural spaces by using several indicators such as interactions in nature, biospheric values and nature connectedness. A comparison between rural and urban responses is discussed in conjunction with possible ways to align these findings back to the governance model of Murray Park. Our data contributes to the growing nature connectedness research and highlights the strong relationship between nature connectedness and stewardship behaviours, as is seen in the literature. Trends in connectedness stratified by demographic variables, which isn’t often explicitly discussed are identified.