Abstract ID: 3.11555 | Accepted as Talk | Talk | TBA | TBA

In mountain areas, the consequences of anthropogenic climate change have a severe impact on the well-being of the natural environments, the underlying ecosystem services, and the local population’s secure existence. These environmental and socio-economic uncertainties contribute to emigration, leading to an increasing number of young people growing up disconnected from mountain areas. Researchers describe this phenomenon as an “extinction of experience,” as reduced human-nature interaction alters young people’s perceptions and relationships with natural environments. However, the broader societal dependence on these sparsely populated, natural environments in mountain areas is often underestimated, as not only the local population relies on the resources provided. Therefore, it is essential to investigate young people’s current perceptions of Alpine environments, as well as their individual’s perspectives and experiences to foster sustainability, environmental awareness and recover their human-nature relations for mountain areas. This study investigates young people’s visual perception of Alpine environments by performing visitor-employed photography walks with young people in the Gaisberg Valley in Tyrol, Austria. The research area features a high Alpine, climate change impacted landscape. The 450 collected photographs are analyzed by using qualitative content analysis. This approach supports to identify frequently perceived and key landscape features, as well as nature-based experiences documented by young people in mountain areas. Therefore, this contribution aims to better comprehend current human-nature relations with the aim to facilitate the restrengthening of young people’s human-nature relationships and their awareness for Alpine environments.