Healthy Ecosystems, Healthy People

Jim Smyllie

Executive Director, People, Landscape and Biodiversity

Making Space

for Nature

– Lawton Report 2010

New policy framework

New understanding of the value of nature

Provisioning services

Fresh water

Food (eg crops, fruit, fish, etc)

Fibre and fuel (eg timber, wool, etc)

Genetic resources (used for crop/stock breeding and biotechnology)

Biochemicals, natural medicines, pharmaceuticals

Ornamental resources (eg shells, flowers, etc)

Regulatory services

Air quality regulation

Climate regulation (local temp. /precipitation, GHG sequestration, etc)

Water regulation (timing/scale of run-off, flooding, etc)

Natural hazard regulation (ie storm protection)

Pest regulation

Disease regulation

Erosion regulation

Water purification and waste treatment

Pollination

Cultural services

Cultural heritage

Recreation and tourism

Aesthetic value

Spiritual and religious value

Inspiration of art, folklore, architecture, etc

Social relations (eg fishing, grazing, cropping communities)

Supporting services

Soil formation

Primary production

Nutrient cycling (water recirculation in landscape)

Water recycling

Photosynthesis (production of atmospheric oxygen)

Provision of habitat

Thanks to Mark Everad from EA for this slide

What you don’t consider you may lose!

Why it matters

Multiple issues for our places and our people

• Air pollution reduces average UK life expectancy by 7-8 months• Urban flooding costs £270 million a year in England and Wales.

• The cost of environmental damage from polluted urban wash-off has been estimated at £150 - £250 million.

• Resources - South-East England has less water per head than Morocco or Egypt.

• Maintaining the UK's green spaces would deliver £30bn in health and welfare benefits each year. However, failing to do so would cost £20bn each year.

• Mental illness was estimated as a £77.4 billion welfare loss to the UK.

• Insufficient physical activity costs the UK £8.2 billion annually• Biodiversity – specialist species being squeezed, loss of diversity

New delivery landscape

• 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships and City Deals - helping develop a strategic view of the economy and the environment

• 48 Local Nature Partnerships – bringing together local interests to best manage the natural environment

• 12 Nature Improvement Areas – locally driven partnerships working at a landscape scale.

• Well supported NGO and voluntary sector.

The Network of Protection we have

Sharing evidence, advice, expertise, support

• Microeconomic Evidence for the Benefits of Investment in the Environment (MEBIE)

• Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment (MENE)

• Natural England’s Health and the Natural Environment web page info pack contains a wealth of research references.  

• GI valuation tools - an assessment • GI as a catalyst for economic growth (with Defra)• Local Environment and Economic Development toolkit (piloted by

New Anglia LEP)

The importance of local places

Are about the places people relate to

Provide the context and starting point for a wide range of partnerships and community groups

Bring together biodiversity, geodiversity, landscape character, historic environment, access & engagement, climate change, ecosystem services.....................in one place

Rethinking the environment – catalyst not barrier

• encourages inward investment to an area

• attracts increased visitor spending in an area

• saves environmental costs

• provides health benefits

• generates employment

The environment as a catalyst

Nature encourages inward investment to an area:  

• 95% of real estate developers and consultants across Europe believe that open space adds value to commercial property

• On average, developers would be willing to pay at least 3% more for land in close proximity to open space, with some putting the premium as high as 15-20%

• Before the development of the High Line Park (New York), properties in the surrounding area were valued 8% less than the median in Manhattan. Between 2003 and 2011 the values near the park increased by 103%

surpassing the New York average.  

Tourism and biodiversity

• Visits by UK residents to the countryside and/or villages contribute £5.5 billion annually for the economy in England and that visits by UK residents contribute £7.4 billion annually (1)

• Recreational visits to Forestry Commission estates have an economic value of £3.354 million per annum32 (2)

• It is estimated that people visiting Osprey watching sites in the UK bring total additional to the seaside expenditure of £3.5 million per year to the areas around the sites (3)

1) Deloitte and Oxford Economics, 2010.2) Willis and Garrod, 1991. 3) Dickie et al., 2006.

Urban flooding costs £270 million a year in England and Wales(1).

• It is been predicted that this will increase to between £1 and £10 billion a year by 2080 unless preventative action is taken(1).

• Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) are cost-effective ways to reduce flood risk(2).

• Green roofs(3) and urban trees(4) retain rainwater reducing flood risk.

1) PARLIAMENTARY OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2007. Urban flooding2) DUFFY, A, JEFFERIES, C, WADDELL, G, SHANKS, G, BLACKWOOD, D & WATKINS, A 2008. A cost comparison of traditional drainage and SUDS in

Scotland. Water Science & Technology, 57, 1451-1459. SUDS involve retaining water above ground near to where it falls. Duffy found the capital costs of SUDS to be less than half that of traditional drainage and maintenance costs to also be lower.

3) MENTENS, J, RAES, D & HERMY, M 2006. Green roofs as a tool for solving the rainwater runoff problem in the urbanized 21st century? Landscape and Urban Planning, 77, 217-226.

4) XIAO, Q, MCPHERSON, EG, SIMPSON, JR & USTIN, SL 1998. Rainfall interception by Sacramento's urban forest. Journal of Arboriculture, 24, 235-244.

Flood control

Mental Health

Mental illness estimated as a £77.4 billion welfare loss to the UK(1).

• Time ‘in nature’ promotes recovery from stress and attention fatigue, and has positive effects on mood, concentration and self-discipline(2).

• There are is evidence which strongly suggests a long-term relationship between chronic stress and access to green space(3,4).

1) THE SAINSBURY CENTRE FOR MENTAL HEALTH 2003. The economic and social costs of mental illness. 2) HEALTH COUNCIL OF THE NETHERLANDS 2004. Nature and Health. NATURE AND FOOD QUALITY AGRICULTURE. The Hague3) GRAHN, P & STIGSDOTTER, UA 2003. Landscape planning and stress. Urban forestry & urban greening, 2, 1-18. 4) NIELSEN, TS & HANSEN, KB 2007. Do green areas affect health? Results from a Danish survey on the use of green areas and

health indicators. Health & Place, 13, 839-850.

Health & Physical activity

Insufficient physical activity costs the UK £8.2 billion annually• These is a relationship between quantity

of accessible green space and population health – even when you control for wealth and other factors(1,2,3,4)

• People use green space much more when its in short walking distance(5,6).

• Local context is crucial, poor-quality green space where there are concerns for personal safety will be used less(7)

.

1) DE VRIES, S, AVERHEIJ, R, PGROENEWEGEN, P & SPREEUWENBERG, P 2003. Natural environments-healthy environments? An exploratory analysis of the relationship between greenspace and health. Environment and Planning A, 35, 1717-1731

2) MAAS, J, VERHEIJ, RA, GROENEWEGEN, PP, DE VRIES, S & SPREEUWENBERG, P 2006. Green space, urbanity, and health: how strong is the relation? Journal of epidemiology and community health, 60, 587.

3) TAKANO, T, NAKAMURA, K & WATANABE, M 2002. Urban residential environments and senior citizens’ longevity in megacity areas: the importance of walkable green spaces. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 56, 913.

4) MITCHELL, R & POPHAM, F 2008. Effect of exposure to natural environment on health inequalities: an observational population study. The Lancet, 372, 1655-1660 5) GILES-CORTI, B, BROOMHALL, MH, KNUIMAN, M, COLLINS, C, DOUGLAS, K, NG, K, LANGE, A & DONOVAN, RJ 2005. Increasing walking:: How important is distance to,

attractiveness, and size of public open space? American journal of preventive medicine, 28, 169-176. 6) NEUVONEN, M, SIEVÄNEN, T, TÖNNES, S & KOSKELA, T 2007. Access to green areas and the frequency of visits-A case study in Helsinki. Urban forestry & urban greening,

6, 235-247. 7) URBAN GREEN SPACES TASK FORCE 2002. Green Spaces. Better Places. LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND THE REGIONS/ DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT. London.

Reconnect people and nature

"It will be said of this generation that it found England a land of beauty, and left it a land of beauty spots"

CEM (Cyril) Joad, The Horrors of the Countryside (1931)