Environmental Bridgebuilding: Connecting People Through Nature Conservation. The Example of the Barn Owl

Psychologists have long known that contact with and exposure to so-called outgroup members can help overcome separation, including those resulting from entrenched conflicts. Getting to know each other facilitates understanding and fosters tolerance, whether we think of national, religious, cultural, socio-economic or age divides. Thus, we here expand the concept of Environmental Peacebuilding to Environmental Bridgebuilding, because sharing knowledge and practices around nature conservation objectives offers opportunities to find common ground for individuals and groups. With Environmental Bridgebuilding, we are emphasising the connectivity effects of nature conservation planning and implementation. Due to our shared experiences, we take our work with the barn owl, Tyto alba, as an example to discuss Environmental Bridgebuilding. This choice does not limit Environmental Bridgebuilding to this species, on the contrary. Moreover, we discuss psychological factors in addition to between-subgroup and intergroup challenges that might impact the success of socially engaging nature conservation initiatives, as well as the need for the combined expertise from various professions, such as biologists, psychologists, farmers and economists. Ecology and science more generally can be an inspiring source to bring together people that life has divided.