One of the most important benefits of nature to human societies (i.e. “ecosystem goods and services”) are the cultural services that biodiversity provides us - from aesthetic, to recreational, to even spiritual. A new paper published in the journal of the Society of Conservation Biologists has quantified the relationship between biodiversity and one critical cultural service - emotional well-being. They found that by increasing the number of species in a given area (called species richness), a person’s emotional satisfaction improves.
These results support policies such as the naturalization of urban spaces as well as the maintenance of old-growth forests, wetlands and other “natural” areas for social benefit (in addition to the inherent biodiversity benefits).
posted on behalf of Dr. Faisal Moola, David Suzuki Foundation Director of Science
Psychological benefits of greenspace increase with biodiversity
Abstract
The world's human population is becoming concentrated into cities, giving rise to concerns that it is becoming increasingly isolated from nature. Urban public greenspaces form the arena of many people's daily contact with nature and such contact has measurable physical and psychological benefits. Here we show that these psychological benefits increase with the species richness of urban greenspaces. Moreover, we demonstrate that greenspace users can more or less accurately perceive species richness depending on the taxonomic group in question. These results indicate that successful management of urban greenspaces should emphasize biological complexity to enhance human well-being in addition to biodiversity conservation.
Rory Rickwood
Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species man acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world. Rachel Louise Carson
Dear Environmental Supporters:
Our environment is screaming a distress message to us through devastating droughts, horrific storms, shrinking wet lands, and homes-crushing mudslide. Are we listening?
Whether it is about global climate change or a local land use decision regarding a wetland habitat, it is time we listen carefully and act on that message: we are hurting our environment. That message is ringing loud in British Columbia, as we see vulnerable habitats suffering the death of a thousand cuts.
There are several cuts and environmental wrongs that have happened at Jingle Pot Marsh to SEI Polygon N0157 in Nanaimo, British Columbia.
The development of an asphalt trail through our governments registered Sensitive Ecosystem Inventory (SEI) at Jingle Pot Marsh is wrong. In Canada, the most fragile lands are identified by both the provincial and federal governments and presented on joint websites. At Jingle Pot Marsh, the City of Nanaimo, the BC Government, and DFO allowed a harmful asphalt trail to cut our fragile SEI in half, causing a major SEI disturbance. One of Canadas top scientist said using asphalt in a marsh trail is a travesty because asphalt can leach harmful chemicals.
The City of Nanaimos trail network plan and alternative transportation objectives should not trump best management practices in environmental protection. Putting a 3m wide asphalt trail across a SEI is equivalent to putting a four lane highway across it. Our little critters like the red-legged frog must hop across a high traffic and noisy trail when traveling between the East and South marshes.
The City of Nanaimos failure to put in bio-filtration ponds at the Serauxmen Sports Fields is wrong. In 2001, it was promised by the City and development drawing showed two bio-filtration ponds would be put in to protect the marsh from parking