Evidence statement on the links between natural environments and human health

Abstract

This evidence statement provides a broad overview of evidence on the inks between natural environments and human health. It summarises global, landscape scale and other indirect links between natural environments and human health before considering direct benefits in more detail. The review focuses predominantly on direct benefits to health and wellbeing at the individual and population level which result from use of or exposure to natural environments. It acknowledges but does not focus on environmental threats and stressors such as poor air quality or diseases that can be passed from wildlife to humans. The evidence statement makes use of higher order evidence such as peer-reviewed systematic reviews and other robust forms of evidence where possible, but is not itself systematic. Summary of the nature of the evidence used for each section is shown in he technical appendix. Evidence is used which is relevant to the environment and population of the United Kingdom.