Publications

This practice brief gives a quick introduction that summarises everything you need to know about the concept of Nature Intelligence, why it is important, and how it can be applied in working with young people.

In this report we provide the theoretical foundation for the concept of Nature Intelligence. It consists of four parts. In the first part we give an overview of theories on the concept of intelligence in general, and theories on concepts related to Nature Intelligence. In the second part,  we present a conceptual model of Nature Intelligence based on  theoretical insights  and hands-on-experience from youth organisations. In the third part we describe how we developed a scale to measure Nature Intelligence. Finally, in the fourth part we discuss insights from research on nature-based education that shed light on the critical success factors  for promoting  Nature Intelligence.

We developed a manual for youth workers, educators, administrators, volunteers, or programme developers who want to use ‘nature as a teacher’ to enrich the quality and impact of non-formal education programmes. The manual is divided into three parts. The first part gives you the content for working with Nature Intelligence (or its abbreviation NQ) in your organisation. After a brief introduction to the concept of NQ, we describe four unique principles for how you can facilitate NQ in youth work: wholeness, diversity, cycles and forces. In the the second part we share with you four inspirational narratives from our own  field work with young people. In the third part we present a stepwise approach for how to integrate the concept of NQ in non-formal education programmes. For each step specific actions are specified along with a description of outcomes. These outcomes help you to evaluate whether the steps and actions have been completed successfully.

With this 36-item  paper-and-pencil test young people can discover their unique Nature Intelligence profile.