Definitions of biodiversity from urban gardeners

Abstract

Living in urban environments can leave people disconnected from nature and less likely to engage with biodiversity conservation. Within urban areas, residential gardens can occupy large proportions of greenspace and provide important habitat for biodiversity. Understanding the views and knowledge of garden owners who have collective responsibility for managing these areas is therefore important. We aimed to understand how urban garden owners understand biodiversity. We surveyed garden owners in Derby, UK, across 20 census output areas spanning a socioeconomic spectrum. Residents were asked to explain their understanding of ‘biodiversity’ in a short definition format. Responses were classified using thematic and word frequency analyses. Of 255 respondents, approximately one-third were unable to provide a definition. Themes that emerged in frequency order were as follows: variety of species or environments, coexistence of organisms, conservation of nature, a synonym for habitat and uncommon answers not clearly related to biodiversity. Members of wildlife or gardening charities and people with higher levels of formal education were more likely to provide definitions in line with formal definitions. We detected no difference between keen and less keen gardeners and little association between definitions and gardening for wildlife behaviours. These short-form responses captured many themes longer and/or qualitative assessments have identified, illustrating a diversity and depth of understanding of the concepts of biodiversity, without necessarily adhering to the formal definition. Given the variety of understanding, at this critical period, technical terms, even common ones, should be used with an open mind about how people interpret and act on them.