www.ieep.eu@IEEP_eu

Wetlands and their social and health benefits

Patrick ten Brink, Senior Fellow and Head of Brussels Office, IEEP

with thanks for inputs by colleagues:

Jean-Pierre Schweitzer and Konar Mutafoglu (IEEP) and building on work of wider team

CEEweb Academy on Building Blue-Green Infrastructure 6-8th October 2015 Budapest, Hungary

Objectives of the ongoing study

Understand and communicate benefits of nature for health and social inclusion.

Understand the different stakeholder roles in promoting the health and social benefits of nature.

Assess the scale of the benefits to help communicate the opportunities of integration and taking action and improve political will for action.

Identify the tools that have been (or could be) successfully used to help map and estimate the health and social benefits of biodiversity.

Direct and Indirect Health Benefits

Improved air quality & health benefits

Noise reduction benefits

Improved climatic conditions & avoiding heat stress

More pleasant & peaceful, less stressful environment

Healthier lifestyles – nature experience

Outdoor recreation and physical activity

Wellbeing – living in attractive location

Promoting social cohesion

Quality of green public spaces, reduced social tension

Opportunities for involvement from all sectors of society – volunteers and employment.

Improved climatic conditions & avoiding heat stress

The Problem:

• Climate change implies higher average and extreme temperatures for most of Europe.

• An estimated up to 70,000 people died during the 2003 heat wave in Europe.

• Urban heat islands can be between 2 to 12 degrees warmer than peri-urban, low-density areas with ample green spaces.

• Further urbanisation contributes to more pronounced urban heat islands.

Nature based solutions: The evidence from literature suggests that:

• Protected areas & wider Green Infrastructure can contribute to mitigating urban heat islands. Urban parks particularly important and more so if wetlands and blue infrastructure.

• Benefits are observable for nature on a larger-scale (e.g. protecting coherent and connected undeveloped land) & small-scale

• The City Council of Almada, Portugal, which has a high vulnerability to heat wave mortality, has shown implementing green and blue infrastructure can reduce the urban heat island effect (by up to 4 degrees) and provide multiple ecosystem services (Almada City Council, ICLEI Resilient Cities 2015)

Climate and Heat Example: Spain, Vitoria-Gasteiz - Salburua Wetlands

Vitoria-Gasteiz and Salburua Wetlands

5 degree UHI and city high with a

vulnerability to heatwaves

• Green belt around the city connects urban areas and integrates wetlands, Salburua (Ramsar, No. 1263) and the Zadorra River.

• Provide 250,000 citizens opportunities for cooling oases and recreation spaces. Never more than 300 meters from green or blue infrastructure

• Vitoria-Gasteiz was European Green Capital in 2012

Climate and Heat Example: France, Lyon- Berges du Rhône

Lyon, Berges du Rhône

• 2003 the heat wave increase mortality in Lyon by 80%, above average for a French city

• Rhône River which runs through the city has been at the heart of the solution.

• Aiming to increase access to cool and shaded areas, rain water harvesting, sustainable drainage and reduce flood risk by increasing run off.

• 2007 reopened public access to the banks of the river (Grand Lyon, 2014). €42 millionredevelopment programme, Berges du Rhône, replaces asphalt car park with 5km of riverside pathway and green spaces

• Riverside redevelopments aim to provide 25,000 new homes and 14,000 new jobs by 2030

Outdoor recreation and physical activity

Nature based solutions: The evidence from literature suggests that:

• exercising and being physically active in green areas provide not only physical health benefits but also positive effects on mental health.

• green areas increase the level and willingness to do physical activity.

• people want to spend more time exercising in green areas.

The Problem: • Almost two thirds of adults and 80% of young people do not reach the minimum recommended

levels of weekly 150 minutes of aerobic physical activity in Europe (Hallal et al. 2014).

• Globally, physical inactivity causes approximately three million deaths per year, (Lim et al. 2012) as well as 6–10% of the coronary heart disease, Type-2 diabetes, and breast and colon cancers (Lee

al. 2012).

• As a cause of death inactivity is considered as a “new smoking”. It causes as many deaths (Lee et

al. 2012).

Finland, Kuopio – Moved by Nature

• Moved by Nature’s aim was to promote the collaboration with the health sector in Finland to allow vulnerable groups to benefit from access to physical activity in natural spaces across Finland

• Activities in the pilot study in Kuopio included ice fishing, canoeing and swimming in Lake Kallavesi

• 16 men at risk of Type-2 Diabetes were involved in the pilot and reduced their weight on average by 3.75 kilos each.

• Funded by the European Union Social Fund (75%) and public and private organisations, with a total budget of 348 000 €.

Exercise Example: Finland, Kuopio – Moved by Nature

Opportunities for involvement from all sectors of society –society – volunteers & employment

Nature based solutions: The evidence from literature :

• Volunteering in the natural environment can lead to social and community benefits, enabling people to develop new social relationships, build a sense of community, and learn new skills.

• Managing and investing in nature – e.g. managing urban, peri-urban, and rural parks, or planting new

tree lined roads or developing roofs – creates both direct local employment that provide private and public benefits, and indirect employment (e.g. recreation and tourism related jobs)

• It makes use of traditional knowledge (e.g. forest management) and new approaches, skills and tools (e.g. architects, spatial planners, GIS mapping).

• In Finland the total annual revenue linked to visitor spending in national parks and key recreation areas (total of 45 areas) has been estimated as €87 million per year, generating €10 return for every €1 of public investment (Huhtala et al., 2010).

The Problem:With increasingly urban and diverse populations, and with a reduced “social fabric” and often high unemployment, there is a need for new means of individual and community engagement.

Opportunities Example: Belgium - Hoge Kempen National Park

Belgium: Hoge Kempen National Park

• Closure of last coal mines in the province of Limburg left 40,000 unemployed & vast brownfield areas threatened with post-industrial decline, including large wetland lakes left from extraction areas

• In 2006, following efforts of local environmental NGO Regional Landschap Kempen en Maasland (RLKM) site became Belgium’s first national park, covering a number of Natura 2000 sites

• Investments in conservation on the basis of economic argument - direct/indirect employment FTE 400 jobs, direct economic benefits around 20 million euros (Van den Bosh, 2012).

• Total 128 million euros have been invested in the park, compared to an annual indirect revenue creation of 191 million euros

Opporunities Example: Slovenia, Secovlje Salina Nature Park

Secovlje Salina Nature Park and Lepa Vida Spa• The Secovlje salt-pans have created a unique

habitat for salt-loving plant species, rare Mediterranean mammals, reptiles and 288 species of migrating birds

• The Natura 2000 and Ramsar site successfully generates local jobs in the tourism and health sectors while maintaining biodiversity values of the area

• The park has ~ 50,000 annual visitors, increasing from 8,000 in 2002, and employs ~ 90 local stafffor nature management, up from 16 in 2002.

• The site is managed via a public-private concession agreement, the first of its kind in Slovenia for a conservation area

Healthier lifestyles – nature experience and wider benefits

Nature based solutions: The evidence from literature :

• Nature areas related to children’s better functioning - concentration, motoric skills, self-esteem, emotion regulation.

• Strong evidence on natures’ positive effects on mental health - nature has restorative, stress reducing effects and even short break from work in green area can have positive effects of stress reduction.

• Some evidence that nature environments lower blood pressure and pulse rate, reduce cortisol level..

The Problem:

• Mental disorders account for about 20% of the burden of disease in the European Region, rising to 26% in the countries in the European Union (EU).

• Depression alone is responsible for about 15% of all days lived with disability.

Direct Health Benefit Example: Hungary - Lake Hévíz

Hungary, Lake Hévíz

• Peat bottom thermal lake in W. Hungary within the Lake Hévíz Nature Protection Area. Europe’s largest thermal lake.

• The Saint Andrew Rheumatism Hospital, located on lake, 780,000 patients in 2014, carries out medical treatments

• Its healing properties linked to its sulphur content and sulphur bacteria living in the water, are used for the treatment of rheumatic and locomotor diseases (Green Capital Zrt. 2008)

• Wider socio-economic benefits – wellness hotel providing spa treatments up to 3500 guest a day.

Next Steps of the Study

1. Seeking additional evidence / case examples to help illustrate the nature based solutions – Natura 2000 and Green infrastructure benefits to health.

2. Explore innovative governance solutions – who is doing (can do) what to promise nature based solutions. e.g. which public health stakeholders are driving change.

3. Understand practical tools that can help facilitate solutions

4. Engage stakeholders to clarify practical ways forward - January workshop –and develop a Health and Nature road map for progress on synergies.

Completing the evidence base and understanding stakeholder roles in nature based solutions

Thank You!

IEEP is an independent, not-for-profit institute dedicated to the analysis, understanding and promotion of policies for a sustainable environment. www.ieep.eu. ptenbrink@ieep.eu

55 Quai Au Foin / Hooikaai 55, Brussels 1000, Belgium & 11 Belgrave Road, London, SW1V 1RB, UK

Patrick ten Brink at ptenbrink@ieep.eu

Konar Mutafoglu kmutafoglu@ieep.eu

We are seeking to build on cases from across the EU, build on insights from successful stakeholder cooperation, understand stakeholder roles, tools and measures that can

promote synergies and explore what savings can be made through nature based solutions.

So do contact us with your insights & practice.

We will also have a major workshop in Brussels in January – if interested, please get in touch.

Health and Social Benefits of Nature and Biodiversity Protection