US conservationists have identified an ‘ongoing and fundamental shift away from nature-based recreation’ such as walking, camping and fishing that they say may eventually threaten the future of the conservation movement.

Oliver Pergams, a biologist at the University of Illinois, and Patricia Zaradic from the University of California’s Environmental Leadership Programme, analysed visitor numbers to state and national parks across the USA, Japan and Spain; investigated the number of applications to hunt, fish and shoot; and looked at surveys on the popularity of outdoor pursuits such as camping and hiking.

Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, noted a 25 per cent decline in the number of trips being taken since the 1980s. Before the 1980s, outdoor activities of all kinds had enjoyed a period of steady growth since the Second World War, said the study’s authors.

‘The replacement of vigorous outdoor activities by sedentary, indoor “videophilia” has far-reaching consequences for physical and mental health,’ Pergams said. ‘We think it probable that any major decline in the value placed on natural areas and experiences will greatly reduce the value people place on biodiversity.’

But according to Clare O’Connor from the Association of National Park Authorities, a similar decline in park visits doesn’t appear to be happening in the UK. ‘We are seeing more and more people getting out into the countryside, and numbers have been growing steadily,’ she said.

O’Connor warns that it’s difficult to make direct comparisons between the protected landscapes of the USA and the UK: ‘US national parks are often uninhabited and very remote, whereas here in the UK, our parks contain settlements and villages. It’s sometimes these that are the object of people’s journeys.’