People have unique sets of direct sensory interactions with wild species, which change through their days,
weeks, seasons and lifetimes. Despite having important influences on their health and wellbeing and their
attitudes toward nature, these personalised ecologies remain surprisingly little studied and are poorly
understood. ...
People have unique sets of direct sensory interactions with wild species, which change through their days,
weeks, seasons and lifetimes. Despite having important influences on their health and wellbeing and their
attitudes toward nature, these personalised ecologies remain surprisingly little studied and are poorly
understood. However, much can be inferred about personalised ecologies by considering them from first
principles (largely macroecological), alongside insights from research into the design and effectiveness of
biodiversity monitoring programs, knowledge of how animals respond to people, and studies of human biology
and demography. Here I first review how three major sets of drivers, opportunity, capability and motivation,
shape people’s personalised ecologies. Second, I then explore the implications of these mechanisms for how
more passively and more actively practical improvements can be made in people's personalised ecologies.
Particularly in light of the declines in the richness of these ecologies that are being experienced in much of the
world (the so-called 'extinction of experience'), and the significant consequences, marked improvement in
many people's interactions and experiences with nature may be key to the future of biodiversity.
