What is Sounds of Your Park?
The Sounds of Your Park initiative is a continuously growing collection of sounds intended to celebrate the acoustical beauty and diversity of the world’s national parks and other protected areas. Natural spaces, species, and traditional cultural practices are disappearing around the globe as the modern human footprint expands. Coupled with this loss is the associated loss of natural and cultural soundscapes. Stated plainly, some of the planet’s most iconic sounds are disappearing and are now largely confined to the most isolated and protected places.
At the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conferences of the Parties (COP15), the 30 by 30 worldwide initiative to protect 30% of Earth’s land and oceans by 2030 was agreed to by nearly every global government. 30 by 30 is an effort to curb global biodiversity losses and climate change.
National parks and other protected areas are crucial to the success of 30 by 30, and are critical for maintaining human and global well-being. By protecting natural spaces we also protect highly valuable natural and cultural sounds that may otherwise cease to exist. Natural sounds in particular are shown to benefit human health and can indicate the health of ecosystems. Having access to these places and their sounds, either directly or through remote listening opportunities like Sounds of Your Park, helps restore human well-being and ecosystem health and in turn, raises awareness of these critically important places.
Watch the short video below to learn more about our mission. Click here to watch a longer version of the same video, or another that discusses using natural sounds as a conservation tool.
Who are we?
This project is a #NatureForAll collaboration between the following. The #NatureForAll movement helps bring organizations together to inspire love of nature, with the understanding that the more people experience nature, the more they will strive to conserve it.
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