For most of us, it is hard to believe when someone says our distorted memories and shorter life spans (as compared to ecological time scales) can influence our perception and conservation of the natural world. However, the concept of ‘Shifting Baseline Syndrome’ (SBS) explains the same phenomenon. It is a situation in which knowledge about the state of the natural world is lost over time. This happens because humans compare the changes in the environment against a point of reference or baseline, which is usually fixed at a young age. This baseline shifts with each generation, and sometimes even in a person. Hence, what we perceive as untouched nature would be considered degraded by our ancestors, and what we recognise as degraded would be pristine for the next generation.
There are two different kinds of shifting baselines: generational amnesia and personal amnesia. Generational amnesia is the loss of knowledge from generation to generation and personal amnesia is a condition when people forget how the natural world used to be within their lifetime and assume there is no difference between past and present conditions. This loss of knowledge and distorted memories results in inaccurate perception and underestimation of the extent of long-term environmental changes.
https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});Several studies have predicted the detrimental effects of shifting baseline syndrome (SBS) on conservation efforts; however, these were restricted to provide sufficient empirical evidence of SBS owing to a scarcity of long term scientific ecological data against which knowledge of environmental changes can be compared. A new study published in the journal People and Nature extends upon these existing studies to explore the impacts of generational and personal amnesia on public perceptions of conservation need. The findings of the study show the evidence of generational amnesia; it shows that the knowledge of past conditions of the natural world was closer to the actual historical ecological data in the elderly than young people. Also, older people were found to give higher importance to conservation efforts for species in decline than the young, indicating a negative impact of SBS on future conservation work. The study is a joint effort of Royal Holloway University, Zoological Society of London, and British Trust for Ornithology.
The study was conducted in 11 neighbouring counties in Southeast England: Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Greater London, Kent, Hampshire and Isle of Wight, Hertfordshire, East and West Sussex and Surrey. The researchers used extensive online surveys to gather data on public perception of abundance and long-term population trends for 10 UK bird species. The survey also included questions on participants’ demographic information, their birding experience, frequency of activities in nature and knowledge of the local environment. The public perception of abundance and long-term population trends for these bird species were then compared with long-term ecological data. The dataset was a combination of the BTO-JNCC Common Bird Census (CBC) and Breeding Bird Surveys (BBS) from 1966-2017. The bird species chosen are commonly seen in the garden and urban areas of the study sites and are easily identifiable. These bird species included Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus, Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis, Blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus, Eurasian jay Garrulus glandarius, Barn swallow Hirundo rustica, House sparrow Passer domesticus, Collared dove Streptopelia decaocto, Eurasian wren Troglodytes troglodytes, Tree pipit Anthus trivialis, and Common cuckoo Cuculus canorus.
The two conditions necessary to demonstrate the existence of SBS are that ecological change must be happening with time and perceived changes should match with the ecological data. The study presents evidence to support both the conditions; older people had undergone more ecological change than the young and perception of change in older people was consistent with the ecological data. Apart from generational amnesia, the study also exhibits little evidence for personal amnesia. Some younger participants were found not to notice any change in the present and past conditions. They could assess the present conditions precisely, however, also believed that the past conditions were identical to the present. The study reveals that younger people are less informed about past ecological conditions. However, only 2% of the participants showed evidence of personal amnesia implying it is an individual phenomenon.
Before Photograph by Kieran Cox, After Photograph by Kristina Tietjen.
The study also looked into the impact of SBS on the perceived need for conservation. It is the first to examine this empirically for three most diminishing bird species in the study area namely the House sparrow, Common cuckoo, and Tree pipit. House sparrow and Tree pipit were given higher importance for conservation, with older people awarding high conservation attention scores than the young. Among the three diminishing species, the Common cuckoo received the highest mean conservation attention score from both older and young participants. Two other bird species from the study; Blue tit and Goldfinch also received high conservation scores from the elderly suggesting that the impacts of SBS on conservation need can be species specific and not necessarily depend on population trends. The younger people are detached from the nature showing the extinction of experience underway, explain the researchers in the paper.
The paper’s authors write, “Evidence of the presence and impacts of SBS within a large public sample highlights the potential magnitude of SBS as a widespread concern, holding the power to impact conservation understanding, uptake, and support on a global scale”. The researchers recommend several steps to counter SBS that include inter-generational communication, environmental education, and public participation in eco-tourism, citizen science initiatives, and activities in nature. This not only deters the extinction of experience to occur but also enhances the ecological dataset for future SBS studies.
https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});Emphasizing on the importance of long-term data, Lizzie Jones, one of the paper’s author says, “In theory, shifting baseline syndrome could occur anywhere, in any community but empirical evidence has only been found statistically where there are long-term datasets to prove that people’s perceptions diverge from the biological data”. On the possibility of using other models such as plants or fish to test SBS, she says, “one could definitely use plants and fish as models to test that it’s occurring but a long-term biological dataset is a key to proving it, hence why we used birds in our study”.
Whether factors such as attractiveness, distinctiveness, and residency of birds affect the impacts of SBS at the species-level has to be looked into. The researchers also propose that future studies should explore largescale datasets covering various aspects of environmental issues such as perceptions of climate change and urbanization at a global level. The authors conclude that “as a generational phenomenon, SBS is likely to continue as a pervasive issue in conservation. However, by understanding the extent, pattern and rate at which our own actions are degrading the natural environment, and by communicating this knowledge, we might hope to tackle SBS in the future”.
References:
- Jones, L. P., Turvey, S. T., Massimino, D., & Papworth, S. K. Investigating the implications of shifting baseline syndrome on conservation. People and Nature.
- Proving-the-shifting-baselines-theory-how-humans-consistently-misperceive-nature
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