Main Motivations and Barriers to Wildlife-Friendly Gardening in Sweden

Sammanfattning: Biodiversity is declining all over the world due to human activities. This is alarming since human survival is dependent on biodiversity and the ecosystem services nature provides. In urban areas, private gardens have been pointed out as important agents for nature conservation, at the same time as they function as expressions of the owner’s identity and personal values. This study investigates what wildlife-friendly gardening (WFG) practices are carried out in Sweden today and the main motivations behind these behaviours. Additionally, barriers to WFG and implications for interventions to increase WFG-behaviour are identified. An online survey was created and structured around seven specific WFG-practices to assess these aspects. The results show that respondents carrying out the practices were mainly motivated by environmental reasons, while the motivations for not carrying out the practices were mainly aesthetics, health and safety reasons, and practicality. Self-perceived knowledge had a small effect on predicting WFG-behaviour, while additional information of the environmental benefits of the practices may have an impact on increasing WFG-behaviour. Additional factors of age, gender, the number of gardens, and the time spent in the garden did not have a substantial impact on gardening behaviour. This suggests that WFG-behaviour in Sweden is better explained by other factors. A higher sense of nature-connectedness might explain the environmental motivations of current practicians, while a cultural norm of tidiness may explain the main barriers to WFG. Moreover, interventions for increasing WFG in Sweden should focus on providing inspiration and increasing engagement in nature conservation, e.g., through two-way communication and the managing of public green spaces. Further studies investigating the impact of socio-psychological factors on gardening behaviour in Sweden are needed to better understand how to design interventions for increasing biodiversity in urban areas.