REPORT: Environmental socio-cultural values

Environmental socio-cultural values

June 2021

Finlay-Smits S, Ryan A, O'Neill K 2021. Environmental socio-cultural values. BioHeritage Report. 15 p.

INTRODUCTION

The term ‘socio-cultural values’ encompasses a breadth and diversity of human habits, traditions, beliefs, stories, preferences, priorities, and relationships. As such, not only is there no one universal set of socio-cultural values shared by all humans, but there is likewise no one set of socio-cultural values shared within a country, an ethnicity, or indeed a community. Thus, exploring what is known, and what is not, in relation to the socio-cultural values associated with the natural environment is a sizeable task which draws on a wide range of literature. In order to explore this literature in a manageable way a literature search was undertaken using the following search terms: (“cultural values” OR “social values” OR “psycholog values”) AND (environment or nature). This search was then combined with two others to address areas of particular interest. Firstly, it was combined with the search terms: (māori or Zealand) in order to bring in Aotearoa New Zealand-focused literature, and secondly it was combined with the search terms: (“nature-based intervention” OR “connection to nature”) in order to capture literature exploring the relational aspects of socio-cultural values in the context of nature. This initial literature search highlighted that a significant proportion of the research undertaken to date on socio-cultural values associated with the environment has focused on the role of nature in attaining and maintaining physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing. Thus, this theme became one of three that were used to divide up the resultant abstracts for analysis. These themes were: environmental socio-cultural values in the international context, health and wellbeing values related to the environment, and environmental socio-cultural values in the Aotearoa New Zealand context. The key insights from each of these bodies of research will be outlined below with a focus on what has been done, what is known, and where the gaps in our understanding lie. Following these summaries, some overarching insights will be teased out to help guide potential future work in this space for the He Tangata, He Taiao, He Ōhanga: a values-based biosecurity risk assessment framework for Aotearoa project.