Biodiversity for health and wellbeing

The benefits of nature for human health and wellbeing are now widely accepted across research, policy and practice. However, the role biodiversity plays specifically, and how this may vary between people, remains unclear. A suite of theories and frameworks, emerging from a range of academic disciplines, have been designed to map biodiversity-human wellbeing relationships (e.g. attention restoration, ecosystem services, relational values). In general, biodiversity positively impacts wellbeing, although empirical research has only focussed on a few taxonomic groups (primarily birds and plants), and metrics of biodiversity (largely species richness and abundance), while the location of studies has been skewed geographically towards high-income countries. People’s perceptions of biodiversity are often culturally and contextually specific, and commonly do not correlate with the actual levels of biodiversity found within green and blue spaces. Individual perceptions can be informed by the biodiversity attributes people notice (e.g. smells, sounds, colours), memories and experiences. Collectively, understanding the multifaceted ways that biodiversity contributes to human health and wellbeing is critical to ensuring that land-use planning initiatives and nature-based public health interventions are supported by those intended to use and gain from them.