WEALTH OF NATIONS AND WEALTH OF NATURE: WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BIODIVERSITY, ECONOMIC

摘要: This study analyses the relationship between biodiversity, economic wealth, and individual well-‐being. It seeks to contribute to quantification of biodiversity’s role for human well-‐being and the contribution of human activities to biodiversity loss. The hypotheses are 1) a positive relationship between biodiversity and well-‐being, because via securing ecosystem functioning, biodiversity renders ecosystem services that contribute to human well-‐being. 2) The relationship between biodiversity and economic wealth is negative because economic activities are drivers of biodiversity loss. We analysed proxies representing biodiversity, economic wealth, and well-‐being-‐ namely bird species diversity, GDP per capita and individuals’ life satisfaction-‐ using multivariate statistics and generalized linear models. Results show that 1), biodiversity positively correlates with well-‐being 2), biodiversity negatively correlates with GDP per capita. 3), interaction between birds and education correlates positively with economic wealth. This study confirms a positive correlation between human well-‐being and economic wealth, while the relationship between human well-‐being and biodiversity is influenced by economic wealth. Interpretation of causal relationships is difficult, yet increased well-‐being in low-‐income countries with high biodiversity might be interpreted as more intact socio-‐economic livelihoods. Data shows trade-‐offs between biodiversity conservation and economic wealth that could potentially be overcome via improving education.