Urbanization and other human activities have led to habitat destruction and the extinction of a large number of species globally. Despite general acknowledgement that the involvement of citizens in conservation is pivotal to halting the loss of biodiversity, there is still relatively little understanding of the knowledge lay people have of the concept of biodiversity as well as their overall perception of what biodiversity is about. As the majority of the global population is urban or urbanized, this study aims to contribute to the understanding of how the biodiversity value of the place people live in shapes their perceptions, attitudes, preferences, and social representations of biodiversity. Methodologically it engages in a comparative study of two areas in a peri-urban setting, showing a similar composition of artificial and natural land covers. Both areas show the presence of the same range of biodiversity values but a contrasting all-over biodiversity value. A multi-method approach is used combining attitudinal scales, visual methods, and open questions in a questionnaire. The results show that context matters, meaning that experiencing a landscape of higher biodiversity value can shape positively people’s knowledge, perception, and attitudes; and that using mixed methods in a complementary way enhances the understanding of people’s relationship with biodiversity. These results allowed for the conclusion that not only the presence of biodiversity values is relevant, but above all that the promotion and communication of biodiversity values in people’s surroundings through public policies that enhance the social status of biodiversity can contribute to their overall understanding of biodiversity and well as their attitudes. Ultimately, this study shows that novel approaches to green infrastructure planning have to be developed, so as to make biodiversity visible in ways that make it more accessible physically and cognitively.

城市化和其他人类活动导致栖息地破坏和全球大量物种灭绝。尽管人们普遍承认公民参与保护对于阻止生物多样性的丧失至关重要，但对非专业人士对生物多样性概念的知识以及他们对生物多样性的整体看法的理解仍然相对较少。由于全球大多数人口居住在城市或城市化，因此本研究旨在帮助了解人们居住地的生物多样性价值如何塑造他们对生物多样性的看法、态度、偏好和社会表征。从方法上讲，它对城市周边环境中的两个区域进行了比较研究，显示人工和自然土地覆盖的类似组成。两个区域都显示出相同范围的生物多样性价值，但整体生物多样性价值却截然不同。在问卷中使用结合态度量表、视觉方法和开放式问题的多方法方法。结果表明环境很重要，这意味着体验具有更高生物多样性价值的景观可以积极地塑造人们的知识、感知和态度；并且以互补的方式使用混合方法可以增强人们对人类与生物多样性关系的理解。这些结果得出的结论是，不仅生物多样性价值的存在是相关的，但最重要的是，通过提高生物多样性社会地位的公共政策，在人们周围环境中促进和传播生物多样性价值，有助于他们全面了解生物多样性及其态度。最终，这项研究表明，必须开发绿色基础设施规划的新方法，以便使生物多样性可见，使其在物理和认知上更容易接近。