LAUSR

Man’s relationship to nature, its formation, structure, and the variables that affect it, are the fundamental research topics in science and environmental education. Love for nature and connection with it is perceived as one of the elementary predictors of interest in the issue of environmental protection and pro-environmental behavior (Krepelkova et al., 2020). In order for children to develop a positive attitude towards nature, it is necessary for their educators to have a similar personal quality. Finding out the relationship of prospective teachers to nature and the factors that influence it, is therefore, a completely legitimate and important goal of pedagogical research. Quantitative approaches to measuring the relationship of man to nature most often use one of the proven scales measuring its specific dimension. As an example, the Connectedness to Nature Scale can be named. It is a fourteenitem scale introduced in 2004 by Stephan Mayer and Cynthie McPherson Frantz. It is designed to measure an individual’s emotional connection with the natural world and is based on the idea that “the more people feel connected to nature, the less they damage it because they would perceive it as self-harm” (Mayer & Frantz, 2004). A very interesting tool is the Nature Relatedness Scale – NRS (Nisbet et al., 2009; Nisbet et al., 2011), based on the biophilia hypothesis (Kalayci, 2020; Wilson, 1984). For each item, the respondent expresses the degree of agreement on a standard 5-point Likert scale. The NRS is focused on a construct called nature relatedness by its author. “The concept of this construct involves appreciating and understanding our connection to other living beings on Earth. But it is not only a love of nature or the joy of superficial manifestation of nature such as sunsets or snowflakes. It is also understanding of the meaning of all its aspects, including those aesthetically unpleasant to people” (Nisbet et al., 2009). The same authors have proven in three follow-up studies that the nature relatedness construct is a predictor of an individual’s personal well-being and mental health (Nisbet et al., 2011). They also achieved similar results in experiments examining the impact of staying in nature or watching nature documentaries on personal happiness Milan Kubiatko, Karel Nepras, Tereza Strejckova, Roman Kroufek J. E. Purkyne University in Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic Abstract. Biodiversity is the result of long-term evolution. It is one of the fundamental global problems of today as it is declining in space and time. The aim of this research was to determine the relationship of man and nature and to analyze the influence of variables such as gender, age, pet ownership, cultivation of plants, and perception of popular and unpopular animals. A total of 549 respondents took part in the research survey. In addition to the above-mentioned demographic variables, the research also contained 5 items related to the perceived vulnerability of respondents and 37 items focused on the perception of wolves and bees as example of unpopular or popular animals. All variables except gender had a significant influence on man’s relationship to nature. Students who perceived their own vulnerability to a greater extent had a more negative attitude towards nature. Fear of both groups of observed animals had a negative influence on the relationship to nature. Other dimensions correlated positively, age as well as plant growing and pet breeding. In the end, the possibilities of improving the relationship to nature are suggested.