Promoting responsible camping: research summary

Summary of research assessing why some outdoor users behave responsibly within official guidelines, while others behave irresponsibly or illegally, when camping with tents in Scotland.


Methodology

The research comprised three phases:

Phase 1: Scoping

  • A short literature review of 24 publicly available articles on irresponsible outdoor behaviour including, but not exclusively when, camping;
  • Stakeholder interviews with 14 representatives of national bodies as well as local rangers, access officers and land managers to gather their perspectives;
  • These stakeholders were recruited from areas of Scotland where irresponsible camping behaviour is known to be a problem, so they are likely to have experienced more instances of these behaviours than those in other areas of Scotland;
  • Their experiences therefore help illustrate the types of irresponsible behaviour that are sometimes associated with wild camping and not necessarily its prevalence in Scotland.

Phase 2: Primary research with target audiences

  • Depth interviews with 20 participants who had wild camped in Scotland in the previous two years and demonstrated at least one of an agreed list of irresponsible behaviours;
  • These participants were purposively selected to help understand irresponsible wild camping behaviour better. The prevalence of certain behaviours among this group is not therefore representative of all wild campers.

Phase 3: Behaviour change workshop

  • A virtual workshop with the NatureScot, the Scottish Government and BritainThinks teams, alongside a few other representatives from communications teams in this space. Structured as follows:
    • A debrief of the findings from Phase 2 of the research;
    • A facilitated workshop, using the opportunities and barriers uncovered from the previous phases to map potential behaviour change communications and interventions against the Individual, Social and Material (ISM) behavioural framework.

Contact

Email: socialresearch@gov.scot

Back to top