Testing the BIO-WELL scale in situ: measuring human wellbeing responses to biodiversity within forests

The beneficial influence of nature on human health and wellbeing is well documented. However, nature is not homogenous and there remains a gap in our understanding of how the living component of nature, biodiversity, affects people’s wellbeing. This paucity of understanding hinders our ability to plan and manage environments that maximise both conservation and wellbeing benefits. To investigate biodiversity-wellbeing relationships, BIO-WELL, a reliable and validated self-reported wellbeing scale, was developed. BIO-WELL was originally developed to measure how people respond to biodiversity metrics and attributes in relation to their wellbeing in an ex situ context. Here, we test BIO-WELL in situ with the public in British forests. Confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha reaffirmed the one-factor structure of the scale. We found concurrent validity analogous to BIO-WELL ex situ, demonstrating that the scale is suitable and reliable for use in situ. The scale can be deployed to generate empirical evidence to support policy and practice decision-making for improving natural environments for both biodiversity conservation and human wellbeing.