Global environmental quality decline builds up through innumerable decisions at many scales that cause damage to ecological and social values. Environmental assessment (EA) is a relevant decision-making framework in this sense. Besides its technical role, EA has a cultural side we should consider in the pursuit of sustainable societies. Despite its limited reach, EA exemplifies and confronts some cultural implicit stances that may unwittingly favor the overall decline of environmental quality, and limit the advancement and efficiency of EA. Many of these cultural traits are well known and easier to point to than to reverse, namely: (1) too tolerant-to-damage standards of environmental protection and equality; (2) inadequate criteria to assess environmental performance; (3) tolerance of the net loss of environmental quality; (4) confrontation between ecological and social values in decision-making; and (5) neglect of full, in-kind compensation of environmental impacts. EA may have not only a technical or procedural, but also a cultural role to play in confronting these sources of unsustainability. A lack of attention to the cultural causes of environmental impacts neglects the deepest roots of environmental damage. This commentary addresses the topics above and brings attention to their disregard for environmental values, which should guide EA towards increased levels of sustainability.

El daño ambiental y la injusticia social son dos rasgos característicos del mundo contemporáneo. Ambos evidencian una falta de respeto hacia los valores naturales y humanos que la realidad, per se, posee. El descubrimiento de estos valores puede constituir una oportunidad para promover cambios de conducta que contribuyan a lograr una cultura más sostenible y justa. Tras examinar algunas posibles causas culturales de la insostenibilidad socio-ambiental, los autores plantean que la belleza que encierra la realidad puede desvelar a cada individuo valores naturales y humanos que antes no se percibían como tales. Este descubrimiento del valor interpela a la conducta personal e invita a la adopción libre de un compromiso de respeto hacia el mismo.

This educational proposal consisted of the design, development and evaluation of an Environmental Education urban camp at the campus of the University of Navarra. The main objective of this camp addressed to 4-5 year old children was to use Environmental Education as a tool to promote human-nature connectedness and offer children opportunities for playing outdoors and exploring the environment. The methodology for the design and organization of the camp was based on elaborating an Activities Guide, which was tested in several pilot sessions in the formal educational context. The assessment of activities was conducted by using an adapted graphical rating scale through which children were able to express to what extent they enjoyed the activities. Complementarily, educators' observations about the group's behaviour and the activities' development were considered. The full camp experience was conducted in four different weeks during summer 2021, involving a total of 70 participants. The results obtained were positive since 89.2% of the participants expressed that they had a good experience during the camp. The highest rated activities were the ones including hands-on experiences and handicrafts outdoors. Thus, this experience highlights the potential of certain areas within cities to grow into learning spaces and places of connection with nature.

Forest bathing practices benefit individuals' physical and mental health. A growing number of published studies provide evidence of such effects in diverse populations and contexts. However, no literature has been found that evaluates the effects of forest bathing on people with intellectual disabilities. In this paper, we present a quasi-experimental pre-post protocol for assessing the preliminary efficacy and feasibility of a forest bathing intervention in a group of adults with intellectual disability. An 11-weekly session program will be applied in the forests of the Ollo Valley, Navarre (Spain). The preliminary efficacy outcomes will be blood pressure, psycho-physiological coherence parameters and quality of life. The feasibility of the intervention will be assessed through data on barriers and facilitators of the implementation process and indicators of environmental comfort (physiological equivalent temperature and thermic perception). This study offers an opportunity for people with intellectual disabilities to benefit from a forest bathing intervention and explore its effects not only on their quality of life, but also on the improvement in their physiological and psychological state. This feasibility study is an essential step to explore crucial aspects for a future full-scale trial.