Nature and its diversity offer people a wide range of benefits, such as economic and health benefits. This page provides more information on the economic and well-being benefits of biodiversity.
Nature, the foundation of our well-being
Nature is vital for the well-being and survival of people, society, and businesses. Biodiversity describes the diversity of living nature; the range of species, ecosystems and the internal genome of species. Biodiversity enables ecosystems to function, become resilient and provide vital services such as water purification and climate regulation.
According to a 2019 estimate by the International Panel on Biodiversity (IPBES), biodiversity is deteriorating at an unprecedented and accelerating rate in different parts of the world. Impoverishment is caused by the unsustainable activities and consumption of humanity: the destruction and degradation of habitats caused by land use, and the overconsumption of natural resources, which is further exacerbated by population growth. We are living through the sixth wave of mass extinction of species – the first caused by human activity (IPBES 2019).
Globally, the most significant factors contributing to biodiversity loss, i.e. drivers of biodiversity loss, are land use, climate change, direct exploitation of species, the spread of invasive alien species, and pollution. Changes in land use, such as deforestation and urban expansion, are destroying habitats and reducing the habitat of species. Climate change causes changes in habitats that can be harmful to many species. The direct exploitation of species, such as hunting and fishing, can lead to overexploitation and extinction of species. Invasive species can displace native species and alter the balance of ecosystems. Pollution, such as the spread of chemicals and plastics into the environment, can harm organisms and weaken the functioning of ecosystems. The combined effects of the drivers are significant. Halting biodiversity loss requires effective measures.
The preservation of the vitality and diversity of nature in the city is important to its residents, for example, from the perspective of well-being, health and comfort. On a global scale, it has been calculated that people living in cities consume 75 per cent of natural resources and cause 75 per cent of climate emissions (Venditti 2022, Khatri 2024). The majority of people in Finland and the world live in cities.
Cities play a significant role in halting biodiversity loss, as they have the main responsibility for changes in the natural environment of the land and water areas they own. The loss of biodiversity also weakens the adaptability and resilience of urban nature, i.e. the ability to recover from unexpected disturbances. There is a risk that there would be sudden and irreversible changes in the functioning of urban ecosystems, the consequences of which would be serious and unpredictable for both urban nature and city residents.
The depletion of biodiversity is a serious threat to the health and well-being of city dwellers and to the economic stability of cities. The City of Tampere has also recognised its responsibility for biodiversity loss globally. The city organisation has an indirect impact on global biodiversity loss, for example, through the procurement of food and building materials.
Climate change threatens biodiversity: it changes the living conditions of species, forces them to move to new areas and makes adaptation more difficult. Northern species and unilateral ecosystems are particularly vulnerable. Diverse nature offers species more opportunities to adapt to changing conditions and move to other habitats.
Halting biodiversity loss and adapting to climate change have mutually reinforcing effects that can bring other benefits, such as improved air quality and increased green infrastructure. Climate change is expected to accelerate biodiversity loss, and on the other hand, the loss of biodiversity may accelerate climate change if, for example, nature's ability to sequester and store carbon weakens. Some of the measures to mitigate climate change are also beneficial for biodiversity, but separate measures are also needed to halt biodiversity loss.
In growing cities, construction threatens biodiversity by fragmenting, degrading, and destroying habitats. Good urban planning and nature-based solutions can increase biodiversity and thus create better living environments for both people and nature.
Strengthening blue-green connections and improving connections between different living environments is essential. Diverse urban nature supports the development of a sustainable city of the future and reduces the effects of heat waves and floods, for example, increasing the resilience of both nature and city residents. In Tampere, lakes and waters are recreational places and transport routes, but also sources of drinking water and district cooling. In hot weather, the lakes cool the air and offer an opportunity to swim.
Biodiversity and the city's blue-green network have a strong impact on heat waves and urban temperatures. Abundant vegetation lowers the temperature by increasing evaporation, shading, and reducing the binding of sunlight. High temperatures increase health problems, make people feel unwell and increase healthcare costs. The cooling needed in hot weather also consumes energy and increases costs. The preservation of biodiversity is vital for our natural environment to be able to adapt to the changes brought about by climate change.
Biodiversity loss threatens the foundations of our economy - Natural capital must be part of the city's economy
Humanity's life and well-being depend on biodiversity – the biological structures and processes that produce ecosystem services that are important to humans are based on it. Ecosystem services refer to all the intangible and tangible benefits that humans derive from nature, such as clean air and water, fertile soil, nutrition, flood management, and recreational opportunities. Some ecosystem services are vital to humans, while others increase our well-being by bringing, for example, economic benefits. Nature and its biodiversity can be thought of as capital, without which our economy cannot run (Council of Tampere Region 2015).
Biodiversity also has a direct and indirect impact on physical, mental, and social well-being in everyday life. For example, the development and maintenance of the human immune system requires continuous exposure to diverse environmental microbiota, such as soil microbes. Being in nature is good for people's mental health in many ways. Contact with nature relieves stress, relaxes, improves mood, and increases mental resources. The health benefits provided by nature reduce healthcare costs. For example, the calculated value of the health and well-being impacts of the Kintulammi Nature Reserve has been estimated at 3.8 million euros per year.
Nature is in many ways a valuable asset, a capital. Through sustainable and responsible natural capital management, we ensure that it will continue to produce benefits in the form of ecosystem services. The better we take care of our natural capital, the more it can produce ecosystem services.
Nature restoration, i.e. the restoration of an environment that has been altered as a result of human activity, is also often economically viable. For example, according to an estimate made in the international TEEB project (The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity), for every dollar invested in restoration, 3–75 dollars are returned as ecosystem services (TEEB 2009).
However, restoration is often slow, technically challenging and expensive, so preventing biodiversity loss is significantly cheaper for societies than repairing the damage afterwards. Restoration is not always even possible – no restoration measures will bring back extinct species.
Costs and economic benefits of nature work
The costs of the measures in the Tampere Biodiversity Programme are investments in natural capital that improves the state of nature and its biodiversity. With regard to the measures that can be assessed, the investments in the measures in the Biodiversity Programme total 14.8 million euros and the operating expenses 9.4 million euros between 2026 and 2030. In addition, the additional funding needed for the implementation of the measures is estimated at 6.6 million euros between 2026 and 2030. This gives an indication of the costs of nature work, but the figure should not be taken as a price tag for the Biodiversity Programme. The most significant costs are related to, for example, nature-based stormwater solutions, increasing urban meadows, equalising the pressure on the use of nature reserves, restoring small water bodies, and improving the biodiversity of coastal waters in the zero-fibre area of Lielahti.
Correspondingly, we receive returns from natural capital, i.e. benefits, some of which we have estimated to have an economic value. In terms of recreation, flood regulation, and carbon sequestration, the annual benefits to be achieved in Tampere are, according to a conservative estimate, 218 million euros, i.e. a total of more than 1 billion euros between 2026 and 2030. This is many times more than the financial investment invested in biodiversity. Of course, it should be noted that a large part of the benefits would be realised at the moment even without additional investments in nature, but the measures have an important role in maintaining the value of natural capital.
More detailed cost estimates for each measure in the Tampere Biodiversity Programme can be found in connection with each measure, and the benefits produced by nature can be found in the framework of ecosystem accounting in the next section.
Records of the benefits produced by nature are kept with the help of ecosystem accounts
The amount of natural capital must be measured so that it can be systematically monitored and the information utilised when planning the city's blue-green service network. One measurement method is ecosystem accounts, which expands traditional national accounts, and which the City of Tampere has been developing as a pioneer together with the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) since 2021 in national and international projects. Ecosystem accounts make it possible to integrate natural ecosystems and the ecosystem services they provide more closely into the economy and to examine the interdependence between economic activity and ecosystems.
Ecosystem accounts are a way of presenting and monitoring the number and status of natural ecosystems, as well as the amount and economic value of the benefits they produce. Assessing these is increasingly important, especially in growing cities, where urban construction must be carefully considered to ensure sustainable and resilient growth. Traditionally, the problem has been that the value of the benefits produced by nature is largely unknown, and therefore they are not sufficiently taken into account in decision-making. Ecosystem accounts make nature and the benefits it produces visible and present them as comparable alongside other monetary economic calculations.
Ecosystem accounts
There has been pilots conducted in Tampere for 1) the ecosystem scope account and the accounts for the supply and use of ecosystem services for four different ecosystem services: 2) stormwater regulation services, 3) recreational services, and 4) carbon sequestration services.
1) The ecosystem scope account describes the area of ecosystem types in two different years. The information is based on Corine Land Cover data. According to the national accounts, between 2012 and 2018, deciduous, coniferous, and mixed forests have decreased by 124 hectares (-0.7 %) and agricultural areas by 16 hectares (-0.1 %). As the city has grown, 59 hectares (0.3 %) have been converted into detached house areas, 21 hectares (0.1 %) into blocks of flats and 13 hectares (0.1 %) into service and industrial areas. Coniferous forests have decreased the most and areas of detached houses have increased the most.
2) The monetary value of the stormwater regulation service provided by green areas has been approximately 42 million euros in 2012 and approximately 45 million euros in 2018, if the annual annual precipitation peak was 24 millimetres. The value has increased during the period under review, especially in built-up areas, where more buildings are likely to have been built. These can benefit from stronger retention of rainwater. Of the economic sectors, households benefit the most from the stormwater regulation service, but industry and the commercial sector also benefit from the service. If the annual precipitation peak were 50 millimetres, the total value of the stormwater management service would have been as much as 59 million euros in 2018.
The amount of the regulation service is based on the amount of stormwater that is retained in the areas. The stormwater regulation service provided by green areas was converted into a monetary amount using the method of avoided damage costs, which was based on the age and building material of different building types. Flooding was modelled with two different annual precipitation peaks: 24 millimetres and 50 millimetres.
3) In 2024, Tampere's green and water areas produced recreational services for city residents worth 149 million euros annually. The value of recreational services is high, especially in waterways and old-growth forests with trees over 20 meters tall. The areas of the city center, Kauppi-Niihama, and Hervanta, but also the areas of northern Tampere, such as Kintulammi, are highlighted as high-value areas.
The economic value of the recreation service is based on a representative sample survey conducted among Tampere residents in 2024, with a total of 524 respondents aged 18–80. The results generalised the responses to the entire adult population of Tampere. The respondents were asked to mark on the map the object that is most often used for recreation. If they wished, the respondents could also mark other places they use for recreation. A total of 966 sites were marked on the map. The map markings were targeted at ecosystem types based on land cover data. The economic value of the recreational service was estimated on the basis of the number of visits and the distance and time travelled to the recreational site, i.e. using the so-called travel cost method.
4) The economic value of the carbon sequestration services has not been calculated in the actual ecosystem accounting framework. However, its economic value has been estimated in a simplified way based on the estimated carbon sink of all land use sites in the Tampere region (forests, agricultural land, other vegetation, and waterways) in 2025. The size of the sink has been estimated to be approximately 144 kt CO2e, and if its economic value is used as the shadow price of carbon dioxide estimated by the European Investment Bank (165 €/t CO2e in 2025), the economic value of the carbon sequestration services, i.e. the carbon sink, will be approximately 24 million euros in 2025.