Nepal named world’s most ‘nature-connected’ nation

Nepal ranked first, followed by Iran, South Africa, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. Nepal has been ranked as the world’s most “nature-connected” country, while Bangladesh placed fourth, according to a global study on people’s emotional and psychological bonds with the natural world, reports The Guardian.

The study, published in the journal Ambio, surveyed 57,000 people from 61 countries to examine how social, cultural, economic, and geographic factors influence attitudes toward nature.

Nepal ranked first, followed by Iran, South Africa, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. Britain was near the bottom, ranking 55th out of 61 countries.

Languishing below Britain are the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan and Spain, which is the least nature-connected of the 61 nations surveyed.

Croatia and Bulgaria were the only European countries to make the top 10, with France the next-highest European country at 19th place.

Led by British and Austrian researchers, including Miles Richardson, a professor of nature connectedness at the University of Derby, the study found that spirituality and religious faith were the strongest predictors of a deep connection with nature.

In contrast, countries that perform well in the World Bank’s “ease of doing business” index – an indicator of how market-friendly an economy is – tend to show weaker ties to the natural environment. Other factors found by the study to be lack of connection with nature included levels ubanisation, mean income and internet use.

The graphed based on the report shows that Nepal ranked first, followed by Iran, South Africa, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. Nepal has been ranked as the world’s most “nature-connected” country, while Bangladesh placed fourth, according to a global study on people’s emotional and psychological bonds with the natural world.

Moreover, researchers involved in the study said that spiritually emerged as the strongest predictor of closeness to nature. Societies where religion plays a central role and where faith is prioritized over scientific rationalism ted to show stronger emotional bonds with the natural world.

Meanwhile, countries with high levels of internet uses, higher average income, and greater urbanization appeared to show weaker levels of nature connection. The”ease of doing business” index, which measures how business-friendly a country is, was also said to be correlated with lower levels of nature connection.

Nature connectedness is a psychological concept used to measure how deeply people feel related to other species and ecosystems.

Previous research has shown that people who feel more connected to nature tend to have better well-being and more likely to engage in environmentally friendly behaviours. Low levels of nature connection were described as one of the core underlying factor driving global biodiversity loss, alongside inequality and materialistic priorities.

The study suggested that nature could be integrated more meaningfully into health system, law and business. It mentioned the possibility of greater use of natural environments in public health settings and the option of creating legal fameworks that recognize some from rights of nature.

This is also to be noted that people of Nepal worship water, air, sky, fire, forest, farms, frogs, snakes, animals, birds, trees and so many things directly belong to nature. Some such things are considered to be holy souls and also as vehicles of gods and or symbolic of gods and goddesses.