Nature Engagement and Wellbeing Pre-, During and Post Covid-19: Supporting the UK (Green) Recovery

On 23 March, the UK went into lockdown in response to the Covid-19 threat. As a result, people's engagement with natural environments may have changed significantly which is likely to have had significant impact on their wellbeing. We will work with Natural England to understand changes in nature engagement and wellbeing in the UK before, during and after lockdown and help understand what Government and Statutory Bodies can do to ameliorate the impact of Covid-19 on wellbeing now and as part of the UK Government Green Recovery strategy from Covid-19. We will examine what lessons can be learned from this period of disruption for theory development and practice, and for the provision and management of natural places for human wellbeing by: 1) providing an in depth understanding of how wellbeing during and post lock-down has changed across the UK as a result of changes in access to- and engagement with different natural environments. 2) creating a mapping of different wellbeing outcomes associated with different types of natural environments and the use of these environments for different activities. 3) contributing to theory development through improving the measurement and examination of a key concept in nature-wellbeing studies "a sense of being away". Four studies will be conducted analysing data on nature-engagement and wellbeing in: (1) a longitudinal survey study with a representative sample of (1500) UK households (June 2020-21) studying (changes in) wellbeing and engagement with different natural environments, (2) an analysis of social media images and comments posted during lockdown, (3) an ethnographic study with up to 30 families from different socio-demographic backgrounds to provide an in-depth insight into experiences during and post lockdown, and (4) secondary data analyses of data collected by Natural England over the last ten years to provide a broad perspective of nature engagement pre-, during and post lockdown.