Miss Lissy Fehnker1
1Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Globally we are facing an environmental crisis. Collectively, the 7 billion people on Earth are exploiting natural resources at rates and intensities that are surpassing the capacity of natural systems to absorb the wastes or recover. Therefore, degradation to the natural world and species extinction is widely acknowledged by the scientific community and global population. It has been argued that disconnect between humans and nature is what contributes to this crisis, and is also the reason behind the slow response to these issues.
Given that humans can be attributed to playing a significant role in environmental damage, it is crucial that for environmental management solutions to be effective, we take into consideration what drives these behaviours and how people view themselves in relation to the natural world. Although environmental issues are well understood from a scientific perspective, currently environmental sciences struggle to integrate social processes to address the current degradation to the natural world. This research therefore aims to contribute to this gap through investigating how people perceive nature, how connected to nature they feel they are, how this may influence how they treat nature and what factors influence these notions – all from an environmental management perspective.
Biography:
PhD student halfway through PhD in Environmental Management at Massey University. Completed qualifications include Master of Environmental Management (Distinction), Bachelor of Arts (Geography Major), Diploma in Environmental Sustainability. Currently working as an adjunct tutor and marker for Open Polytechnic University in New Zealand for 6 courses that fall under the environmental management degree. Living in Auckland, New Zealand.
