Resource

The Health and Social Benefits of Nature and Biodiversity Protection

Author/Contact:

Institute for European Environmental Policy
London Office
11 Belgrave Road
IEEP Offices, Floor 3
London, SW1V 1RB
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7799 2244
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7799 2600
Publication date:

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Resource description:

Protecting nature and biodiversity is helping to tackle urgent health and social challenges across Europe. This IEEP study shows how urban, suburban and rural green areas bring multiple and often overlooked benefits to society.

Requirements:

  • European society faces a growing range of health and social problems: respiratory diseases from air pollution, heat stress, noise, obesity and related diseases, such as Type-2 diabetes. There is also a growing recognition that many individuals feel isolat
  • There are multiple solutions to the complex problems outlined above. This report presents a summary of the evidence on the challenges, the role that nature can play in addressing these challenges, what different stakeholders are doing and can do to build
  • It builds on both a study carried out in 2015 and early 2016 (literature review and interviews), the range of case examples studied from across the EU, and the discussions from a two day workshop held in Brussels on the 27th and 28th of January 2016 and h

Advantages:

  • European society faces a range of health and social issues that merit urgent attention. The EU health sector represents 15% of public expenditure and health care costs are expected to increase. At the same time, there is considerable pressure on public sp
  • While nature cannot be a remedy to all challenges of society (e.g. air pollution control will primarily need to address the sources of pollution), there exist untapped opportunities to realise health and social benefits that often come with co-benefits fo

Constraints:

  • There remain important gaps in knowledge of the health-social-nature links and there is a need for information to support both research and actions.

Development stage:

  • Full, working product