Environmental Program, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, United States of America.
Gund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 Dec 17;15(12):e0243344. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243344. eCollection 2020.
Urban, peri-urban forests and other natural areas provide a wide range of material and non-material benefits to people known as ecosystem services. Access to these areas has been linked to benefits for physical and mental health of local populations. 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. 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. We evaluated the self-reported use and changes in personal importance related to these natural areas before and during the period of restrictions. We received over 400 responses to our field survey. 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. 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'. 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. Our results indicate the increasing demand and value of such areas in times of crisis such as COVID-19. 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.
城市、城郊森林和其他自然区域为人们提供了广泛的物质和非物质利益，这些被称为生态系统服务。人们可以进入这些区域，这对当地居民的身心健康都有好处。2020 年春季，COVID-19 全球大流行迫使许多政府实施了一系列限制措施，包括关闭企业、取消公共活动和学校教育、社交距离、限制社交聚会规模以及旅行限制。在限制期间，我们进行了一项研究，评估了城市和城郊森林以及其他自然区域对居住在佛蒙特州伯灵顿市及其周边地区的人们的重要性。我们评估了在限制之前和期间，人们对这些自然区域的自我报告使用情况和个人重要性的变化。我们收到了超过 400 份对我们实地调查的回复。结果表明，69.0%的受访者增加或大大增加了他们对我们自然区域和城市森林的访问率，80.6%的受访者认为这些区域的重要性以及进入这些区域的机会增加或大大增加。此外，25.8%的样本在大流行之前从未或很少访问过当地自然区域，但69.2%的首次或不常访问者报告说，在 COVID-19 期间能够进入这些区域是“非常重要的”。人们报告说，这些区域对从锻炼到观鸟等各种活动都很重要，但也报告了与在全球混乱时期减轻压力相关的价值观。我们的研究结果表明，在 COVID-19 等危机时期，这些区域的需求和价值不断增加。人畜共患病专家预测，未来可能会更频繁地发生大流行事件，因此需要继续为自然区域提供资金、维护和改善进入这些区域的机会，以满足我们主要的城市化文明的需求。
