Nature and Mental Health: An Ecosystem Service Perspective

The evidence keeps building: spending time in nature is good for mental health. It can help people think more clearly, feel better emotionally, and cope with stress. But as cities expand and people around the world spend less time outdoors, important decisions need to be made about how to protect and create opportunities for nature contact.

This paper brings together findings from the natural sciences, social sciences, and health sciences to identify what researchers agree on when it comes to nature and mental health. It covers everything from brain function and focus to emotional well-being and broader psychological benefits.

Then the authors take it a step further. They show how the concept of “ecosystem services” — the benefits that nature provides to people — can be expanded to include mental health. And they offer a simple, conceptual model to help researchers and decision-makers think about how to do that in practice.

Nature isn’t just nice to have. It’s a resource for public health, and it deserves to be treated that way in how cities are planned, land is managed, and investments are made.

Abstract

A growing body of empirical evidence is revealing the value of nature experience for mental health. With rapid urbanization and declines in human contact with nature globally, crucial decisions must be made about how to preserve and enhance opportunities for nature experience. Here, we first provide points of consensus across the natural, social, and health sciences on the impacts of nature experience on cognitive functioning, emotional well-being, and other dimensions of mental health. We then show how ecosystem service assessments can be expanded to include mental health, and provide a heuristic, conceptual model for doing so.