High-risk nature-based sports can be gateways to pro-environmental attitudes and behaviorsThis South African study pursued the hypothesis that participating in high-risk, nature-based sports may help people shift from ego-centric to eco-centric relationships with the natural world. Environmentally degrading activities, such as littering, are widespread in South Africa, where environmental education is not widespread. However, potentially dangerous adventures in wilderness areas could be powerful experiences to (re)connect people to nature and shift their environmental attitudes and behaviors. To explore this idea, the authors interviewed skilled wilderness adventures to understand their lived experiences and interpret how their intentional engagement with risk in remote environments affects how they relate with nature.
This qualitative study interviewed five males and five females who are skilled in high-risk, nature-based sports: white-water kayaking, downhill mountain biking, rock climbing, adventure racing, ocean wave surfing, river canoeing, and mountain hiking. Participants included young adults from South Africa (age 18+). The semi-structured interviews were designed to explore in detail how these wilderness adventures make sense of their experiences. The researchers then interpreted interview transcripts in light of philosophical and psychological theory they believed could explain how participants related to their self, others, and the natural world while participating in high-risk outdoor sports.
The researchers’ interpretive analysis concluded that high-risk, nature-based sports can be transformative experiences which heighten people’s awareness of their self and how they’re interrelated with others and the natural world. For instance, feeling vulnerable and facing risk in extreme outdoor sports makes people take nature seriously and recognize they’re not the apex life form. Likewise, spending considerable time in high-risk, nature-based sports helped participants feel at one with the water, the mountain, and natural things. This connection to nature was sometimes spiritual and involved the realization that people and nature each affect each other. Participants also described these sports as embodied activities, where there’s a synergy between their mind and body and also a heightened sensual experience of the environment. As part of these lived experiences, participants also realized emotional self-regulation and mindful awareness of their inner and outer environment. The embodied and sensual nature of wilderness adventures also help participants develop eco-sensitivity—a sense of care, compassion, respect, and positive affinity for the environment, including flora and fauna. This communion with self, others, and nature also led to participants being more responsible environmental citizens who speak out against mindless actions that harm the environment.
These findings point to participants in high-risk, outdoor sports becoming more integrated people who are more attuned to their self, others, and the natural world. Paddling, climbing, mountaineering, and related adventure sports provide profound immersion experiences in nature that can help people overcome ego-centric ways of being and instead commune with others and the natural world. As people feel more connected with the natural world, their environmental attitudes and behaviors also change. The authors argue that schools, sports organizations, and environmental education programs can use their qualitative findings and the theoretical principles that informed their study to design outdoor experiences that encourage conservation and environmental justice.
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