Narratives of Deforestation in Aotearoa New Zealand: Bringing the Social Back into Environmental Memory Research

Abstract This article examines how collective memories of deforestation in Aotearoa New Zealand shape pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, engaging with the “non-human turn” in memory studies. While acknowledging the field’s expansion to include non-human nature as an object of remembrance, we argue that environmental memory remains deeply influenced by human agency and social contexts. Two empirical studies inform the conclusions we draw. A high-powered experimental survey ( N = 2,594) tested whether narrative representations of deforestation differ in their effects on pro-environmentalism. The survey failed to support our pre-registered hypotheses, thus suggesting entrenched, pre-existing memories among participants. A follow-up survey ( N = 1,048) employed qualitative methods to explore how historical deforestation is remembered across diverse societal groups, revealing generational and other social patterns, with younger participants, politically left-leaning individuals and Māori respondents more likely to endorse pro-environmental narratives. Overall, our findings underscore the importance of integrating social, political and contextual dimensions into non-human memory studies.