Rose Paul, Riley Lisa
Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.
WWT, Slimbridge Wetland Centre, Slimbridge, United Kingdom.
Front Psychol. 2023 Sep 21;14:1258667. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1258667. eCollection 2023.
Good mental and physical health go hand-in-hand when identifying factors that lead people to experience a better overall quality of life. A growing disconnect to the natural world is worsening the mental health of individuals in many societies. Numerous scientific publications have evidenced that being in nature and access to green and blue spaces positively impact upon humans' physical and mental health. For many people, particularly those living in more urbanized areas, managed natural spaces and borrowed landscapes, such as those found in public parks, wildlife reserves and zoological gardens give the only opportunities for wider engagement with nature. Many zoos are designated green spaces and therefore human visitors can engage with native fauna and flora as well as exotic wild animals. This article reviews the UK Government's "The Five Ways to Wellbeing" concept, applied to zoos and aquariums and thus suggests how zoos and aquariums can use this framework to promote positive nature-connectivity experiences for their visitors and promote good wellbeing. The Five Ways to Wellbeing are Connect, Be active, Take notice, Keep learning, and Give. We illustrate how zoos and aquariums could model their approaches to educational and engagement roles, as well as design initiatives to reach out to local communities the Five Ways to Wellbeing concept. We show that many of the positive programs and works conducted by zoos and aquariums lend themselves to further engagement with the Five Ways to Wellbeing structure. By taking such a structured approach in the design, implementation and evaluation of their activities, zoos can expand their abilities in connecting humans with nature and further add value to their living collections of animals and plants. By including Wellbeing as a defined aim of the modern zoo, it will be clear to all of those involved in their work, visitors, workers, stakeholders, that zoos are working to promote, protect and preserve positive wellbeing outputs for humans and animals alike.
在确定能让人们拥有更高整体生活质量的因素时，良好的身心健康是相辅相成的。在许多社会中，人们与自然世界的联系日益脱节，这正在恶化个人的心理健康。众多科学出版物都证明，身处自然以及接触绿色和蓝色空间对人类的身心健康有积极影响。对许多人来说，尤其是那些生活在城市化程度较高地区的人，人工管理的自然空间和借景景观，比如公园、野生动物保护区和动物园里的景观，是他们更广泛接触自然的唯一机会。许多动物园被指定为绿色空间，因此人类游客可以接触到本地动植物以及外来野生动物。本文回顾了英国政府的“幸福五要素”概念，并将其应用于动物园和水族馆，进而提出动物园和水族馆如何利用这一框架为游客营造积极的自然联结体验，促进良好的幸福感。幸福五要素是：联结、积极活动、留意察觉、不断学习和付出。我们阐述了动物园和水族馆如何将其方法应用于教育和互动角色，以及如何设计举措以向当地社区推广“幸福五要素”概念。我们表明，动物园和水族馆开展的许多积极项目和工作都有助于进一步融入“幸福五要素”结构。通过在活动的设计、实施和评估中采用这种结构化方法，动物园可以增强其将人类与自然联系起来的能力，并进一步提升其动植物活体收藏的价值。将幸福感作为现代动物园的明确目标，对于所有参与其工作的人，包括游客、工作人员、利益相关者来说都将一目了然，即动物园致力于为人类和动物促进、保护和维护积极的幸福成果。
