The human health and well-being benefits of nature are well-known. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the work of environmental stewardship groups, especially those that facilitate access to and/or provide opportunities to engage with nature. To understand the impacts of this disruption on stewardship groups and their volunteers in Hawai‘i, we: (i) conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 leaders of stewardship groups on O‘ahu; and (ii) surveyed 85 individuals who volunteer with stewardship groups across the state. We found that some groups were negatively impacted by COVID-19-related funding losses, volunteer activity cancellations, and thus a reduced workforce. We also found that some groups were able to secure new pandemic-specific funding sources and increase their online presence. Many groups were able to strengthen their connections to community through efforts to respond to COVID-19 driven needs of the community, for example meeting nutritional needs of families through food or crop plant distributions. When asked what they missed the most about volunteering with stewardship groups, over half of surveyed respondents identified the social benefits of volunteering, including feeling a sense of community. Over a third of respondents said they missed engaging with the land/place. Nearly a third indicated that a lack of engagement with these groups during the pandemic had negatively affected them psychologically. Our results highlight the significant yet underappreciated role that stewardship groups play in community and individual well-being, and how a large-scale crisis can lead to innovative adaptations with important implications for social resilience.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.