Connecting People

to Nature
‘Connecting People to Nature’, the theme of World
Environment Day 2017, highlights the vast benefits,
from food security and improved health to water supply
and climatic stability, that natural systems and clean
environments provide to humanity. It also encourages us
to get outdoors and appreciate those benefits first-hand,
including the beauty and diversity of the natural world that
surrounds and sustains us.
Today, the natural capital that supplies those benefits is at
risk from unsustainable development such as the large-
scale conversion of forests and wetlands for agriculture, the
pollution of soil, water and air, resource-hungry production
and consumption and poor urban planning in our fast-
growing cities.
Promoting awareness of the importance of functioning
ecosystems and the services they provide, and safeguarding
them for future generations, are critical to achieving many
aspects of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Central to achieving those goals as well as targets set under
the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity Strategic
Biodiversity Action Plan (2010-2020) is the global
network of protected areas. Expanding and improving
the effectiveness of this network will be vital if we are
to succeed in safeguarding and enhancing our shared
environment in the decades to come.

Ecosystem services
Ecosystems perform many critical functions which are often
neglected in decision-making. To help policymakers take
them into account, economists have estimated the annual
value of some of those services to human well-being.

$577 billion $274 billion

Crop pollination by Commercial fishing’s
insects worldwide contribution to global GDP

$34 billion $1 million

Extra healthcare costs from Tourism revenue from
the loss of vultures in India each live gorilla in Uganda

$126,700 $1,500 per hectare

Flood prevention of Pest control by birds in North
Mantadia National Park American conifers
in Madagascar

Moreover, an estimated 1.6 billion people living in poverty

use forests for all or part of their livelihoods.
 Nature and health
• Many studies show that time spent in green spaces
counters mental health problems such as stress and
depression. Affecting 350 million people, depression is
the leading cause of disability worldwide.
• In Japan, the health benefits of forests have prompted
some local governments to promote ‘forest therapy.’
Research shows time in the woods can boost the
immune system, including against cancer.
• Urban green space is a key weapon in the fight against
obesity: an estimated 3.2 million premature deaths in
2012 can be attributed to lack of physical activity.
• More and more cities are planting trees to mitigate
air pollution, the world’s largest single environmental
health risk: 6.5 million people die each year due to
everyday exposure to poor air quality.
• The use of plants in traditional medicine dates back to
the beginning of human civilization. Herbal medicine
has clearly recognizable therapeutic effects and plays
an important role in primary health care in many
developing countries.
• Common painkillers and anti-malarial treatments as
well as drugs used to treat cancer, heart conditions and
high blood pressure are derived from plants.

Protected areas – the

successes…
• The number of protected areas has been rising along
with recognition of how the can enhance many of the
benefits provided by nature. The proportion of the
world’s surface under some form of protection is not
insignificant.
• There are currently more than 215,000 protected
areas now covering just under 20 million km², or 15 per
cent, of the world’s terrestrial surface. Just over 15,000
marine protected areas now cover over 20 million km²
or 14.4 per cent of national waters and 5.7 per cent of
the global ocean.
• A 2016 study showed that on average biodiversity is
higher inside protected areas than outside: species
richness is 10.6 per cent higher and abundance 14.5 per
cent higher. Protected areas have lowered the risk of
extinctions.
• One-third of the world’s 100 largest cities draw a
substantial proportion of their drinking water from
forest protected areas. Nearly two-thirds of the global
population is living downstream of protected areas.
• Physical activity within protected areas managed by
Parks Victoria in Australia has resulted in health cost
savings estimated at about $150 million.
CC BY NC CIFOR
• Pharmaceutical companies use protected areas for bio-
prospecting in search of new drugs. For example, more
than 400 medicinal plants have been collected from
Langtang National Park in Nepal.
• Terrestrial protected areas account for approximately
20 per cent of the carbon sequestered by all land
ecosystems, while restoration efforts within protected
areas can aid climate change mitigation.
• Well-managed protected areas play a critical role in
strategies to reduce the vulnerability of communities
to the impacts of climate change in, for instance, in
West Africa.
• More than 1.1 billion people depend on protected areas
for a significant percentage of their livelihoods.
• Terrestrial protected areas are estimated to
receive about 8 billion visits per year globally,
raising awareness of the importance of conserving
biodiversity and generating approximately $600
billion a year in spending.
• Protected areas experience less habitat loss than other
areas. For instance, protected areas in the Brazilian
Amazon have four times lower deforestation rates than
non-protected areas.
• Effective marine protected areas have twice as many
large fish species, five times more large fish biomass,
and fourteen times the amount of shark biomass as
fished areas.
• Coral cover within marine protected areas has
remained constant across recent decades, while coral
cover on unprotected reefs has declined.
• The return on investment in protected areas has been
estimated at as much as 100:1. For instance, improving
the status of all threatened species and meeting the
2020 protected area targets would cost an estimated
$80 billion a year; the annual benefits of all ecosystem
services has been estimated at $6-8 trillion.
…and the challenges
• The Aichi Biodiversity Targets aim to protect 17 per
cent of the world’s land and inland water and 10 per
cent of the ocean by 2020. The World is still 3 million
km² short of the land target. In national waters the
global marine target has been reached but there
remains a significant shortfall in marine protected
areas beyond national jurisdiction (High Seas).
• An even greater area would need protection to
meet the targets in an ecologically balanced way
and cover areas of importance to biodiversity. In
2016, less than 20 per cent of particularly rich ‘Key
Biodiversity Areas’ were completely protected.
• There is significant room to strengthen the
management and effectiveness of many protected
areas, some of which have suffered declines in animal
and plant abundance. A 2010 study found that only 22
per cent of protected areas had ‘sound’ management.
Sustained government support is vital.
• Protected area management effectiveness has been
on state-run protected areas. This has resulted in
limited understanding of the effectiveness of other
forms of protected area governance (including
privately and indigenous peoples/local communities.
Recognizing and supporting these areas are critical.
Few governments adequately reflect the value of
natural capital and the ecosystems services it provides
in economic planning or national accounts.
• The majority of protected areas have seen ongoing
declines in plant and animal populations, although at
lower rates than in surrounding areas.
• Conserving 20-30 per cent of global oceans in
marine PAs could create 1 million jobs, sustain fish
catch worth $70–80 billion a year and provide
ecosystem services with a gross value of roughly
$4.5–6.7 trillion a year.