Four ways healing nature is vital to our recovery from COVID-19

It’s been more than two years since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of us vividly recalls the first confirmed cases being reported in our home towns. COVID-19 spread across the planet at lightning speed, and the confirmed death toll is approaching 6.5 million. Communities and economies around the world have been devastated, and many societies need a recovery plan.

A growing number of scientists, including us in an article published today in The Lancet Planetary Health, argue protecting and restoring nature can help societies recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and even help prevent future pandemics. Thriving ecosystems are vital for humans and the rest of nature.

The ongoing destruction of nature is a recipe for disaster. Research points to direct links between the destruction of nature and infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19.