Impacts of Urban Park Use on Pro-Environmental Behaviors

Abstract

Biodiversity loss has been one of the most serious environmental issues on local and global scales. Enhancing people’s pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) to conserve biodiversity is crucial. Nature experiences are limited for urban residents, although nature experiences in childhood have been focused on as a key factor promoting PEBs. Therefore, we consider the role of urban parks in improving PEBs for urban residents towards sustainable cities and communities (Sustainable Development Goal 11). This study aims to elucidate the relationships among urban park use, PEBs, environmental attitudes, nature experiences in childhood, affective connections, community attachment, and ecosystem services by structural equation modeling, using survey data (n = 638) we collected from real urban park users in Osaka (Japan) in 2024. We have obtained three significant findings. First, urban park use for enjoying nature could promote PEBs, while nature experiences in childhood do not directly affect PEBs. Second, the effects of urban park use on PEBs begin to work when the frequency of urban park use exceeds around 2.2 days per week. Third, the perception of ecosystem services does not promote PEBs. We provide discussions concerning policy measures to increase urban park use based on the results. Note that the collected data may be potentially biased toward frequent park users.