The BeNature Guide

The BeNature Guide and Toolkit empowers educators and communities in creating, implementing, and assessing transformative experiences in nature.

The Guide is the result of a co-creation process between the Institute for Sustainability at the University of Surrey and the Surrey Wildlife Trust.

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Progressive Competencies

An ecocentric relationship with nature is a capacity that evolves progressively through the cultivation of specific competencies.

Being in Nature: Learning to feel comfortable and appreciative in our local ecosystems

Being with Nature: Learning how our actions, needs, habits, and desires align with the surrounding natural world.

Being for Nature: Learning how to build a relationship of mutual support with our local ecosystems.

Being as Nature: Learning to recognise and celebrate ourselves as part of past, present, and future ecological processes.

Meaningful Attributes

Nature experiences that are meaningful for growing a relationship with nature tend to share common attributes.

This list of attributes can be used to enhance nature-based activities, ensuring they effectively foster a deeper connection with nature, or to assess the effectiveness of existing activities.

These attributes can make the difference between a fleeting moment and a lasting, transformative nature experience.

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The science and practice

BeNature integrates an interdisciplinary review of scientific literature with an international synthesis of professional expertise. The following validation process and constant engagement with Indigenous Peoples led to a global benchmark in sustainability learning.

Synthesis of academic literature

Reviewing all publications about Human-Nature Connection from 1984 to 2015 led to the realisation that a vast array of disciplines separately investigated our connection with nature. The evidence generated by these disciplines had been combined in BeNature. Link to paper

Reviewing the work of professionals

Professionals have a wealth of knowledge about how to connect people with nature. The wisdom from over 200 different international organisations has been synthesised and integrated into the competencies of BeNature. Link to paper

Other relevant literature

It’s not just about more time outdoors. It’s about designing education in harmony with local ecologies and communities. When done right, schools can become engines of ecocentric culture.
Giusti, M., V. Mäkelä, A. Garbett Skagerlid, and M. Nagatsu. 2025. Shifting relationships with nature through schools: exploring the social and spatial context for transformative sustainability education. Ecology and Society. Link to paper

Guided forest bathing offers a powerful and novel way to deepen human–nature relationships by disrupting routine ways of experiencing nature and enabling participants
Giusti, M., A. I. Vårhammar, V. A. Masterson, and P. E. Cau Wetterholm. 2025. Novel pathways to value nature: how guided forest bathing promotes new relationships with nature. Ecology and Society. Link to paper

Valuing nature relationally fosters sustainability by cultivating care, responsibility, and long-term stewardship rooted in people’s identities, communities, and everyday interactions with the natural world.
Giusti, M., E. Dawkins, and F. Lambe. 2022. Valuing Nature as Individuals and Communities. Page Stockholm+50: Unlocking a Better Future. Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm. Link to paper

Children’s desire to protect nature is shaped not just by psychological traits but by the combination of direct experiences, emotional connections, and the social and physical context of their everyday lives.
Giusti, M. 2019. Human-nature relationships in context. Experiential, psychological, and contextual dimensions that shape children’s desire to protect nature. PLoS ONE 14(12). Link to paper

Cultural ecosystem services emerge through embodied, sensory, and place-based interactions between people and nature. Meaning and value are co-produced through lived experiences rather than solely through abstract preferences or utility.
Raymond, C. M., M. Giusti, and S. Barthel. 2018. An embodied perspective on the co-production of cultural ecosystem services: toward embodied ecosystems. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 68:778-799.