Analysing perceptions of nature and nature's contributions to people for a Swiss ecological infrastructure

Understanding how a population perceives nature and nature's contributions to people is key to designing a society's ecological infrastructure. Narrative-based research can capture how people perceive and value nature. Using the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) framework, through a survey, we capture narratives to assess the value and perceptions of nature and its contributions of Swiss residents living inside and outside parks. We examined 924 narratives of experiences (26% response rate) in nature from a large representative sample of the study areas' populations. This research grants agency to study participants to assess the social value of nature through experience interpretation, thus reducing the interpretation bias of the researchers. Residents in these regions perceive parks, and other areas where nature has been prioritized, provide more benefits than other areas; nature's intrinsic value is as equally important or, for some, even more important than its importance for the economy or culture; and that the perception on the state of nature and nature's contributions differ inside and outside parks. As one of the few exploratory studies to examine perceptions of all types of contributions of nature, using the IPBES international framework, and looking at nature inside and outside parks, this work contributes to strengthening the design and management of parks and ecological infrastructure in Switzerland and beyond. People's values and perceptions of nature provide information to establish ecological infrastructure that could transcend the boundaries of the parks into the larger landscape.Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.