How Important is Community Involvement in Environmentalism?
- David Zu
- Jul 29, 2021
- 1 min read
"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together".
This is an age old proverb whose message still applies to environmentalism today. Protecting nature is a group effort which requires the cooperation of all members in a community; a lack of interest or a few bad actors could ruin a park's natural beauty for everyone. This is why it's important to spread the message of collective action; as we've seen time and time again, it only takes a few steps to save a lot of trouble.
According to a study by Zhang et al. (2020), "community participation is considered an effective measure to protect the eco-environment and to improve people's livelihoods in protected areas." The study investigated many factors which would contribute to pro-environmental behaviors, and concluded that community participation had a direct effect on getting more environment-conscious behaviors. Although other factors such as perception of increased financial, social, or human capital also drove people to be more environmentally aware, community also indirectly influenced these desires. For example, when people saw natural parks and reserves as a positive for their economy, they are more motivated to step in and maintain the health of those environments.
What can we learn from this? It's that by creating a sense of responsibility and environmental awareness within our communities, we can achieve long-term, sustainable change that will ultimately allow our natural spaces to flourish!
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