Children ‘not connected’ to nature, study finds: our tips

oktober 16, 2013

af Laura Canning | guides | news

Nature spotting in style Not that we’re normally ‘Won’t someone think of the children!’ hand-wringers at Pitchup.com, but we were shocked (shocked!) at today’s findings from the RSPB that only one in five 8 – 12 year olds in the UK feel ‘connected to nature’.

The report, part of a three-year research project, asked 1200 children 16 questions about their experience of and relationship with nature.

Only 21 per cent of the 8 – 12 year olds surveyed felt a link with the natural world, which has made learned folk concerned about the impact on the environment in future years, and the impact on children’s health now ( a report last year by the National Trust called this ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’ and said it could lead to physical and mental health problems).

The RSPB has now teamed up with The Wild Network's Project Wild Thing, a film due out on 25 October about children's declining relationship with nature.

Also part of the same three-year research project was States of Nature, from the RSPB and over twenty other wildlife organisations including Kew Gardens and the Marine Conservation Society.

Its report, published in May, found that 60 per cent of British wildlife species are declining, and that one in three species have halved in number over the past fifty years. OK, we’re hand-wringing a bit now.

If you too are hand-wringing, possibly questioning whether anyone will think of the children, and determined after the RSPB findings to take the sprogs nature-spotting forthwith, we bring you the happy news that you can do this on the relative cheap and combine it with a holiday (in the meantime, encourage your small people to chase moths and fascinatedly turn over stones to discover what bugs lie beneath).

Here’s how to find the best of the wild on Pitchup.com:

The David Bellamy Conservation Awards are given to campsites and holiday parks with a strong emphasis on sustainable conservation and encouraging wildlife, from planting organic gardens to building bird hides (we have the man himself explaining the criteria here).

On Pitchup.com you can search for sites with a gold , silver or bronze award with over a hundred so far bookable direct from their listing. And, so no brass monkeys are frozen, combine these with toasty accommodation in lodges, log cabins, pods and caravans for hire.

David Bellamy Gold Conservation Award sites – lodges for hire

David Bellamy Gold Conservation Award sites – caravans for hire

Also simples: look for campsites in a wildlife haven: over 330 and counting at the mo, and as with all our filters searchable in dozens of ways to tailor-make your nature-spotting hol: family-friendly, with wifi, open all year, with dogs allowed, or by date, user rating or price.