Nature deficit disorder

The environmental benefits of re-connecting people of all ages with the natural world, come from greater understanding of and respect for the environment. To make that connection meaningful requires personal experience. We are familiar with ‘armchair travel’ documentaries and have watched as wildlife photographers take us down the Zambezi River. What we miss with the virtual experience is the smell of the earth, the taste of the fresh berries, the feel of the sun warming our back.

People value special places, care for them and in so doing care for themselves and those around them. When we re-connect with Nature we re-connect our communities, get active, get healthy and we all benefit. With pressing environmental concerns adding to physical and mental health issues it’s time to re-connect, build the linkages, value our varied skills and work together. Health practitioners need to work with  landscape professionals, who in turn must work to support the efforts and initiatives of educators, environmentalists, academics, local communities and their representatives.

The problems and possible solutions described in Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods are not unique to New Zealand, USA or any other country. They are problems now spread across the world. There has never been a better time to think global, act local. The challenge is to do it with shrinking funding. That’s where the benefits of connecting professionals and budgets become tangible. My measly budget added to your measly budget makes a bigger budget. Together we can achieve more, avoid doubling up of services, capture a wider ‘market’ to provide the natural connection opportunities sustainable communities need.

Nature deficit and sustainability are about more than just the planet’s resources, the community of birds and the trees; it’s also about the health of the people who live there and their hopes for the future. The web of life connects us all. When we destroy a part of the web we destroy a part of ourselves, whether through depression, rickets, obesity or disease.

Macedonia and Balkan Tree Day plants millions of trees - Boris Trajanov

Natural Play & joined up thinking

We at Greenstone Design UK believe in a joined up approach to play. From a quality of life perspective it is every child’s right to play out. As sustainable landscape designers we work with communities and school groups to develop playful, healthy communities. We work with voluntary groups to enable cost effective, transformational design. We design carefully to ensure volunteer labour can use locally available and recycled materials to create dynamic play spaces, local to where children live.

Children’s play can bring communities together. When that play area is filled with bio-diverse planting, edible, climbable shade trees and abundant wildlife, the whole community benefits. Children learn to love the environment as they break bits of it for their use (den building), they learn to value nature as they watch, chase and catch butterflies, depression, obesity and social isolation are countered while having fun, outdoors.

Children’s outdoor play can reconnect children with nature. We need to think about the wider picture and the huge opportunities that neighbourhood play spaces can provide, for the whole community.