Who knows, who cares? Untangling ecological knowledge and nature connection among Amazonian colonist farmers

Conservationists often assume that connection with and caring about nature's well-being is strongly linked to ecological knowledge. Existing evidence on the link between ecological knowledge and psychological nature connection is mixed, geographically limited to countries in the Global North, and does not scrutinise potential differences in determinants of ecological knowledge and nature connection. We investigate the relationship between psychological nature connection and ecological knowledge of local bird species, and assess their associations with potential drivers, including access to, contact with, and reliance on nature and socio-demographic characteristics. Our study is carried among a novel participant population of colonist farmers living along a major deforestation frontier in the Brazilian Amazon. Our study context has high conservation relevance and provides an ideal setting to assess the extent to which conservation psychology's insights from the Global North hold true elsewhere. Tropical farm-forest frontiers suffer from intense habitat and biodiversity loss, and farmers with migrant origins are important yet rarely studied conservation stakeholders. Importantly, farmers' experiences of nature are likely to vary considerably due to the wide range of socio-demographic, economic, geographical and cultural diversity. Interviewees scored highly on two indices of nature connection, but scores were higher among older people and those with greater contact with nature. Bird identification knowledge was generally low to moderate, and higher among men and younger people. Species more frequently recognised were regionally common, larger-bodied or associated with non-forest habitats. Ecological knowledge of birds and nature connection were not correlated, and they did not have any predictors in common. Our results indicate that colonist farmers are capable of forming strong connections with nature, even if they rarely possess detailed knowledge of local forest biodiversity. Considering the complex and apparently context-dependent relationship between knowing and caring about nature, it is unwise to assume that changing one would automatically affect the other. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. Resume Os conservacionistas geralmente assumem que a conexAo e o cuidado com o bem-estar da natureza estAo fortemente vinculados ao conhecimento ecologico. A evidencia existente sobre a relacAo entre o conhecimento ecologico e a conexAo psicologica com a natureza esta contraditoria, geograficamente limitada a paises do Norte Global, e nAo examina as diferencas potenciais nos determinantes do conhecimento ecologico e da conexAo com a natureza. Nesse trabalho, investigamos a relacAo entre a conexAo psicologica com a natureza e o conhecimento ecologico das especies de aves locais e avaliamos suas associacoes com potenciais fatores determinantes, incluindo acesso, contato, e dependencia da natureza e caracteristicas sociodemograficas. Nosso estudo foi realizado com uma populacAo de agricultores colonizadores que vivem ao longo de uma fronteira importante de desmatamento na Amazonia brasileira. O contexto do estudo tem alta relevancia para conservacAo e fornece um cenario ideal para avaliar ate que ponto as descobertas da psicologia da conservacAo nos paises do Norte Global sAo verdadeiras em outros lugares. As florestas tropicais sofrem com a intensa perda de habitat e biodiversidade pela expansAo agricola. Os agricultores com origens migrantes sAo os principais atores desse processo, embora raramente estudados. E importante ressaltar que as experiencias dos agricultores com a natureza podem variar consideravelmente devido a ampla gama de diversidade sociodemografica, economica, geografica e cultural. Os resultados mostraram que houve uma alta pontuacAo em dois indices de conexAo com a natureza entre os entrevistados, porem essa pontuacAo e maior entre os idosos e aqueles com maior contato com a natureza. O conhecimento de identificacAo de passaros foi geralmente baixo a moderado e maior entre homens e pessoas mais jovens. As especies mais frequentemente reconhecidas eram regionalmente comuns, de corpo maior ou associadas a habitats nAo florestais. O conhecimento ecologico dos passaros e a conexAo com a natureza nAo foram correlacionados e nAo tiveram nenhum preditor em comum. Nossos resultados indicam que os agricultores colonos sAo capazes de desenvolver fortes conexoes com a natureza, mesmo que raramente possuam conhecimento detalhado da biodiversidade da floresta local. Considerando que a relacAo entre o conhecimento ecologico e conexAo com a natureza e complexa e dependente do contexto, nAo e prudente supor que mudar uma afetaria automaticamente a outra. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Automated summary

The relationship between psychological nature connection and ecological knowledge among colonist farmers in the Brazilian Amazon was investigated. It was found that farmers are capable of forming strong connections with nature, even with limited knowledge of local biodiversity. The complex and context-dependent relationship between ecological knowledge and nature connection highlights the importance of not assuming that changing one would automatically affect the other.