Digital innovations have the potential to bring people closer to nature, to help ensure there is the necessary strong public support for conservation measures.
Author Professor Les Firbank, from the University of Leeds’ School of Biology and Global Food and Environment Institute, said: “Our growing digital connection to wildlife, aided by broadcasters such as David Attenborough, may be crucial to securing broad public support for the protection of wildlife, which we are currently driving to extinction at record rates.
“In future, expertise in public engagement and digital innovation are likely to be as important as expertise in conservation biology, to ensure the values and culture of a community are placed at the heart of the protection of nature.
“Urbanisation is changing our cultural relationships with wildlife, and this has to be taken into account by nature conservation organisations if conservation is to be successful into the future.”
“The growing popularity of rewilding may well be a reflection of humanity’s changing view of ourselves, seeing humans as separate to nature, rather than as part of it.”
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