452
recommendations to address the urgent health and sustainability challenges in science, policy and practice.
Keywords Synthesis · Biodiversity · Climate change adaptation · Noncommunicable disease · Policy recommendations · Science-policy interface
Highlights
• Contributions in this volume present growing evidence of the linkages between
biodiversity and physical, mental and spiritual aspects of health and well-being.
• Evidence seems to suggest strong links between biodiversity and physical health
and well-being, which points to important avenues for health treatments and
natural resource management.
• Currently disjointed policy sectors of biodiversity conservation and management, public health and climate change need to work together to foster the foundation of our society – considering the ecosystem and human health in a One
Health agenda.
• Arguing for health as a central benefit to society that results from nature conservation and good biodiversity management should improve the public and political interest in the subject.
• Evidence is sufficient to implement ‘no regret’ actions now that are mainly based
on nature-based solutions.
• Key steps to integrate considerations of biodiversity, public health and climate
change into research, policy and management agendas are provided.
20.1 Introduction
The rise in non-communicable diseases (World Health Organization [WHO] 2017a,
b) combined with biodiversity loss and climate change (Bellard et al. 2012; Steffen
et al. 2015) are among the greatest global challenges society is facing today. While
biodiversity provides the foundation for human well-being, human societies also
provide the greatest drivers for biodiversity loss and climate change. Central to
addressing these critical challenges are the questions ‘How does biodiversity matter
for human health and well-being?’ and ‘What implications does this have for efforts
to address our current predicament?’ (WHO and CBD 2015). Increasingly, science
is starting to unravel relationships of how biodiversity impacts human health and
well-being, and we are at the beginning of an exponential rise in research activity,
as shown by the contents of this book. The chapters critically review the growing
body of literature that examines biodiversity’s contribution to physical health as
well as mental and spiritual well-being in the face of climate change. In their totality, these chapters encompass the mounting evidence of positive effects on physical
health and well-being (see Lindley et al. Chap. 2, Dadvand et al. Chap. 6, Cook
et al. Chap. 11, Hunter et al. Chap. 17, this volume). Some effects on physical health
M. R. Marselle et al.
recommendations to address the urgent health and sustainability challenges in science, policy and practice.
Keywords Synthesis · Biodiversity · Climate change adaptation · Noncommunicable disease · Policy recommendations · Science-policy interface
Highlights
• Contributions in this volume present growing evidence of the linkages between
biodiversity and physical, mental and spiritual aspects of health and well-being.
• Evidence seems to suggest strong links between biodiversity and physical health
and well-being, which points to important avenues for health treatments and
natural resource management.
• Currently disjointed policy sectors of biodiversity conservation and management, public health and climate change need to work together to foster the foundation of our society – considering the ecosystem and human health in a One
Health agenda.
• Arguing for health as a central benefit to society that results from nature conservation and good biodiversity management should improve the public and political interest in the subject.
• Evidence is sufficient to implement ‘no regret’ actions now that are mainly based
on nature-based solutions.
• Key steps to integrate considerations of biodiversity, public health and climate
change into research, policy and management agendas are provided.
20.1 Introduction
The rise in non-communicable diseases (World Health Organization [WHO] 2017a,
b) combined with biodiversity loss and climate change (Bellard et al. 2012; Steffen
et al. 2015) are among the greatest global challenges society is facing today. While
biodiversity provides the foundation for human well-being, human societies also
provide the greatest drivers for biodiversity loss and climate change. Central to
addressing these critical challenges are the questions ‘How does biodiversity matter
for human health and well-being?’ and ‘What implications does this have for efforts
to address our current predicament?’ (WHO and CBD 2015). Increasingly, science
is starting to unravel relationships of how biodiversity impacts human health and
well-being, and we are at the beginning of an exponential rise in research activity,
as shown by the contents of this book. The chapters critically review the growing
body of literature that examines biodiversity’s contribution to physical health as
well as mental and spiritual well-being in the face of climate change. In their totality, these chapters encompass the mounting evidence of positive effects on physical
health and well-being (see Lindley et al. Chap. 2, Dadvand et al. Chap. 6, Cook
et al. Chap. 11, Hunter et al. Chap. 17, this volume). Some effects on physical health
M. R. Marselle et al.