the dwelling on negative aspects of a recent situation), and increased overall sense of wellbeing. A growing literature has produced an evidence base suggesting that nature exposure helps to deliver mental health benefits, reduced stress levels, less rumination (i.e. We were interested in how people are using natural spaces to cope with the physical and mental health challenges, and feelings of isolation, predicated by ‘stay at home’ orders and social isolation. These effects are derived from isolation, disconnection, unemployment, stress, etc., and may result in long term impacts beyond the time frame of the current pandemic. Besides the economic impact of this situation, there are increasing concerns regarding the less obvious effects on mental health. Governments across the globe have issued mobility restrictions aiming to stop the spread of the disease, resulting in approximately half of the world’s population to stay at home and avoid public spaces. Although it is not possible to provide an accurate estimation of global economic losses due to the pandemic, the International Monetary Fund has estimated that the global economy will contract at least 3% in 2020-a figure larger than the 2008–2009 global recession. As of September 2020, the pandemic has caused over 950,000 deaths globally, and it is expected that, despite the rate of infections slowing down, deaths will continue to occur throughout this year. The SARS-CoV-2, also known as COVID-19, is a viral infectious disease that affects mainly the human respiratory system and was first identified in early December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, and since then, it has spread rapidly becoming a global pandemic. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting information files.įunding: The Environmental Program and Ian Worley Award at the University of Vermont supported this research. ![]() Received: JAccepted: NovemPublished: December 17, 2020Ĭopyright: © 2020 Grima et al. Aguilar, Sveriges landbruksuniversitet - Campus Umea, SWEDEN Experts in zoonotic disease predict the potential for more frequent pandemic events, thus predicating the importance for continued funding for, maintenance of, and improved access to, natural areas to our largely urban civilization.Ĭitation: Grima N, Corcoran W, Hill-James C, Langton B, Sommer H, Fisher B (2020) The importance of urban natural areas and urban ecosystem services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results indicate the increasing demand and value of such areas in times of crisis such as COVID-19. People reported that these areas were important for a wide range of activities from exercise to birding, but also reported values related to reducing stress in a time of global chaos. Moreover 25.8% of the sample had either never, or very rarely accessed their local natural areas before the pandemic, but 69.2% of the first time or infrequent visitors reported that having access to these areas during COVID-19 as ‘very important’. ![]() The results show that 69.0% of the respondents had increased or greatly increased their visitation rate to our natural areas and urban forests, and 80.6% of respondents considered that the importance of these areas, and access to them, either increased or greatly increased. ![]() We received over 400 responses to our field survey. We evaluated the self-reported use and changes in personal importance related to these natural areas before and during the period of restrictions. During this period of restrictions, we conducted a study assessing the importance of urban and peri-urban forests and other natural areas to people living in and around the city of Burlington, Vermont, USA. In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 global pandemic forced many governments to impose a set of restrictions including the closure of businesses, cancelation of public events and schooling, social distancing, limitations on the size of social gatherings, and travel restrictions. Access to these areas has been linked to benefits for physical and mental health of local populations. Urban, peri-urban forests and other natural areas provide a wide range of material and non-material benefits to people known as ecosystem services.
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