Children & Nature Network founders release report on global factors influencing the children and nature movement

From virtual reality to the growing recognition of nature connection as a human right, a wide range of societal trends and factors influence the worldwide movement to connect children to the benefits of nature.

At the end of 2023, the Children & Nature Network Founders’ Council – a cross-sector group of experts that includes the organization’s co-founders – finalized a report highlighting some of the most compelling challenges and opportunities facing the children and nature movement today. The report, titled “Trends and emerging ideas influencing the children and nature movement” and authored by co-founders Richard Louv and Cheryl Charles, is grounded in science and research, as well as less formal ways of knowing.

“With this report, we hope to bring attention to issues that are affecting how children connect with nature in their daily lives,” says Richard Louv. “We highlight trends and emerging ideas, and also pose questions about our movement’s role in supporting the health and well-being of children and our planet.”

“This forward-looking report is a real service to the organization and to the children and nature movement,” says Children & Nature Network board chair Jesús Aguirre. “It helps alert us to broader trends that intersect with our work – through the perspectives of the experts who make up our Founders’ Council.”

The report identifies trends in mental and physical health, education, technology and more – and looks at the impressive growth of the children and nature movement internationally.

“We are seeing tremendous growth of nature connection work around the world,” says Cheryl Charles, who currently serves as a steering committee member for the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Commission on Education and Communication. “For example, during this time of climate crisis, the green schools movement is gaining momentum as communities recognize that greening school grounds can help mitigate climate change and enhance biodiversity – and increase the likelihood that children will care for the environment throughout their lives.”

At a high level, the report also highlights how a connection to nature plays a role in supporting general societal well-being. “An example of this is the importance of nature experience for the health of democracy,” says Richard Louv. “To develop a sense of the larger community, a child or an adult must step outside, must get to know the neighbors, both human and other-than-human, and feel connected to the natural world shared by both.”

Additional themes related to well-being include the immediate and delayed impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; the growth of eco-anxiety; nature as prevention and treatment; and continued research related to nature-deficit disorder, a term coined by Louv in his book, “Last Child in the Woods.”

This is the first of what the Founders’ Council sees as an annual effort. The council plans to publish a report annually to identify trends and emerging ideas that may influence the children and nature movement.

About the report’s authors

Richard Louv is a co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Children & Nature Network and the author of ten books, including Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder; The Nature Principle; Vitamin N; and Our Wild Calling. Translated into 22 languages, his books have helped inspire an international movement to connect children, families and communities to nature. In 2008, he was awarded the Audubon Medal. He speaks frequently around the country and internationally. He has written many columns for the Children & Nature Network, many of which can be found here. He currently serves as Chair of the Children & Nature Network Founders’ Council. Learn more at richardlouv.com. 

Cheryl Charles, Ph.D., is an innovator, author, organizational executive and educator. She is a co-founder and President and CEO Emerita of the Children & Nature Network. She currently is Research Scholar and Executive Director of the Nature-based Leadership Institute at Antioch University New England, a Steering Committee member for the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Commission on Education and Communication and Co-Chair of IUCN’s #NatureForAll. She served as founding National Director of the pioneering K-12, interdisciplinary environment education programs, Project Learning Tree and Project WILD. Cheryl is author, editor and designer of a wide variety of publications. She currently serves as Co-chair of the Children & Nature Network Founders’ Council.

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