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Children need nature
We believe that every child should be entitled to regular contact with the natural environment.
Our Every Child Outdoors research draws together the findings from the wide range of research into the positive impacts contact with nature has for children, as well as the environment. These include the educational benefits, contributions to physical health and mental wellbeing, as well as development of personal and social skills.
It also explores some of the consequences of the reduction of such experiences and, sadly, the increasingly-used term of Nature Deficit Disorder to describe the phenomenon.
The report includes new independent research from Ipsos MORI, commissioned by the RSPB, on the most remembered childhood experiences of nature amongst the general public. This discovered that 92% of people agree that these experiences are still important to children today, and that 82% agree that schools should play a role in providing them to all children.
The RSPB is committed to continuing to play our part in ensuring as many children as possible have contact with nature, and working with partner organisations to do so. We believe it is essential that all parts of government and society play their role too.
To complement our research, we produced a short film showing many of the inspiring experiences children and young people have on our reserves.
Ipsos MORI questioned 1012 members of the British public, aged 15 years and over, between 2-8 July 2010 as part of their weekly face-to-face Capibus omnibus survey. The data was weighted to ensure that the profile used was representative of the over 15 British adult population.
Last modified: 07 September 2010