In recent decades, zoos have been increasingly transformed into education centers with the goal of raising awareness about environmental issues and providing environmental education. Probably the simplest and most widespread environmental education program in the zoo is the guided tour. This study therefore aims to test whether a one hour zoo tour has an influence on the participants’ connection to nature and attitude towards species conservation. For this purpose, 269 people who had voluntarily registered for a zoo tour were surveyed before and after the tour. In addition to the regular zoo tour, special themed tours and tours with animal feedings were included. The results show a positive increase in connection to nature and a strengthening of positive attitudes towards species conservation for all tour types. For nature connectedness, in particular, people with an initial high connection to nature benefitted from the special themed tours and the tours, including animal feedings. For attitudes towards species conservation, no difference was found between the tour types. The results prove the positive influence of a very simple environmental education program, even for people with a preexisting high level of connection to nature and positive attitude towards species conservation.

No abstract

Human–nature relationships are in a critical state, characterized by increasing environmental problems caused by humans. Thus, it is essential to know how to motivate people for environmental protection. Motivation can arise from intrinsic, instrumental or relational perceptions of why nature is valuable. The present study investigates empirically how university students differ in their view of nature’s value. For this purpose, students from 13 different majors across Germany as well as students engaged in the environmental protection organization Health-for-Future (HfF) were surveyed via an online survey (N = 1885). The majors were divided into four thematic groups (environmental, people-aligned, structures-exploring as well as economics and political science). While all groups showed high levels of agreement with intrinsic and instrumental values, the groups differed strongly in their relational perception of nature. Environmental disciplines were characterized by a stronger relational view, followed by people-aligned disciplines, while disciplines not directly associated with either people or nature agreed less with relational and also intrinsic values. HfF as a conservation organization showed the highest level of agreement in all three value components. Further we found that gender plays a role in value perception, with women holding stronger intrinsic and relational values than men. The study concludes that among students in Germany, regardless of major, there is a pluralistic understanding of values: ecosystem services (instrumental values) and the intrinsic value of nature are both appreciated, whereas relational values appear to be more group specific. Since students will be future decision-makers of society, relational values have special significance for the understanding of conservation.