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More research is required that considers the participation of, and access for, marginalized wildlife viewers, according to a new study published in People and Nature.
“Coming into this work, we knew that we wanted to look at communities of color and see if there are varying trends in how they engage with natural environments,” said Kelsey Jennings, the paper’s lead author and a graduate student in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.
The study offers insights regarding variables that encourage and foster participation. It surveyed some 17,000 wildlife viewers across a range of ethnic and racial groups, and it found that wildlife viewers from ethnoracial groups received more support in pursuing wildlife viewing from community members – including friends, family, peers, and mentors – than white respondents.
Also, many ethnoracial groups were less likely to identify as wildlife viewers but more likely to say wildlife viewing is more important to their lives, the survey revealed.
The study brings to light how an assets-based perspective can help to identify barriers to participation and help to create more effective, equitable programming for wildlife viewing.
“A lot of research prior to ours focuses on a deficit-based framework,” said Jennings. “We wanted to take more of an encouragement focus, understanding what is helping people participate and how we can build those strengths out to programs and agencies across the country.
“This study makes important first steps toward exploring overlapping systems of marginalization, which can create unique challenges and barriers that make it harder for the outdoors to be accessible to everyone.”