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IUCN WCPA Health and Well-Being Specialist Group
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IUCN COMMISSION GROUP

IUCN WCPA Health and Well-Being Specialist Group

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Group leadership

Dr Christopher LEMIEUX
Commission Member
I take a collaborative approach to research and strive to enhance understanding of priority policy and management issues pertaining to natural resources, with special emphasis on parks and other forms of protected areas. I also have strong interests in linking human health and well-being to policy and practice related to conservation. In more detail, my current research program focuses generally on: policy alternatives and how organizations make policy choices; the enablers and barriers to climate change adaptation within resource management organizations; how the development of new collaborative structures can help enhance science-based decision-making; climate change and Canadian identity, sense of place, and collective action; connecting Canadians to nature: integrating human health and well-being into conservation policy and practice.
I take a collaborative approach to research and strive to enhance understanding of priority policy and management issues pertaining to natural resources, with special emphasis on parks and other forms ...

Contact with nature is critical for our physical, mental, social and spiritual health and wellbeing. Indigenous Peoples have known of these fundamental connections for tens of thousands of years. Yet our environment is facing significant challenges from continuing degradation of our ‘natural capital’, including soil, water and biodiversity loss, which underpins healthy ecosystems and provides a wide range of services that sustain our livelihoods and wellbeing. 

By 2050, the world’s urban population will double to over 7 billion and safeguarding nature as an increasingly scarce resource for our future health and well-being is vital. The natural environment, including national parks and other protected areas, urban green spaces, wetlands and oceans all act as crucial gateways that connect people with nature. 

This Specialist Group facilitates cross sector partnerships to influence policies and plans across sectors, builds and communicates the evidence on benefits of nature for human health and well-being and encourages the development of standard metrics to measure the co-benefits. 

There are three key objectives of the Health and Well-being Specialist Group:

  1. Contribute to further building the evidence and knowledge base on health and well-being interdependencies between natural planetary ecosystems and human populations.
  2. Mainstream the knowledge of health and well-being implications of nature across the conservation, health and other sectors though development of interdisciplinary materials, case studies, tools and programs.
  3. Facilitate partnerships at a global, regional, national and sub‐national scale, between entities working on environmental health and human health to influence policies and plans across sectors that support programs in parks and protected areas.

The Health and Well-being Specialist Group works with other groups within the IUCN that have a focus on connecting people with nature including #NatureForAll, Urban Conservation Strategies and ecosystem services groups.

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