Biodiversity Keeps People Healthy

Abstract

As stated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its report, Our Planet, Our Health, Our Future , ‘[he] alth is our most basic human right and one of the most important indicators of sustainable development (WHO, 2011). Intuitively, we know that nature affects human health. However, people are generally less well acquainted with the fact that biodiversity – the rich variety of species – is in every way essential, indeed, indispensable, to the maintenance of human health and well-being (Corvalán et al., 2005). Without the complex web of interrelations and functional connections between different species in the natural environment, there would be