Connecting Global Priorities Biodiversity and Human Health

AMIRA_A / FOTER / CC BY
to be deprived of the physical, physiological and
psychological benefits that ecosystems provide
(Sandifer et al. 2015). This is not insignificant
in the context of the shifting global burden of
disease, in which NCDs continue to account for an
increasing proportion of the burden. At the same
time, the rise in physical inactivity, combined
with dietary changes that often accompany the
transition from rural to urban and peri-urban
areas, also importantly contribute to the burden
of NCDs. These rising challenges present new
opportunities to produce benefits for biodiversity
conservation and public health, through:
– urban planning to encourage active transport;
– building designs that enhance local
environments and cultural traditions;
– creating settings for restorative health that
draw upon cultural ecosystem services; and
– a deeper understanding of the ways in which
positive and negative exposures to biodiversity are
felt by individuals.
Exploring these associations has been, and needs
to be, an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral
pursuit. In some instances, an empirical and/or
rational inquiry will demand and reveal evidence
to demonstrate a particular relationship, much
like that expected of sound epidemiological or
immunological analyses. In other instances, the
relationship is explored with spiritual, emotional
or intuitive worldviews, informed by the social
sciences. Research from all of these disciplines
will provide for a comprehensive treatment of
the subject.
The diverse and interrelated implications of the
cultural appreciation of biodiversity for wellbeing,
including outcomes for physical and mental
health, are embraced by interlinkages that range
from obvious, direct and linear ones, to ones that
are indirect and more complicated, often mediated
by socioeconomic factors and issues of scale, to
ones that are more reciprocal, where biodiversity,
culture and human health are interdependent.
The interlinkages can be obscured or confounded by
the trade-offs of natural capital for other forms of
capital, such as built, infrastructural and financial.
While trade-offs are sometimes inevitable and even
necessary, these other forms of capital often give
a shorter-term well-being benefit, even though
ecosystem services may have been degraded and
biodiversity may have been lost. Exploring further
interdisciplinary study of the interlinkages between
biodiversity, physical and mental health, and
cultural ecosystem services provides both a framing
device for the post-2015 sustainable development
goals, and a set of integrated indicators that will
allow targets to be set.
220 Connecting Global Priorities: Biodiversity and Human Health
ISTOCKPHOTO