Biodiversity and human well-being trade-offs and synergies in villages

Europe’s rural landscapes, shaped over millennia, support high biodiversity but often have lower living standards than urban areas, potentially leading to social and environmental injustice. Here we studied biodiversity and socioeconomic settings in Central and Eastern European villages across landscape complexity and urbanization gradients. We surveyed the biodiversity of villages by sampling nine taxonomic groups, including plants, arthropods and birds. We found 15% lower multitrophic diversity in villages in agricultural than in forest-dominated landscapes. City vicinity enhanced human well-being (estimated with Better Life Index) but did not affect biodiversity despite a larger human footprint. In agglomerated villages in forest-dominated landscapes, biodiversity was high, with higher Better Life Index and footprint metrics, suggesting associations between biodiversity, socioeconomic status and, thus, environmental injustice. Our results show the high socioecological value of maintaining or restoring landscape complexity around villages and their green infrastructure, requiring top-down incentives and bottom-up initiatives. While biodiversity levels have been studied in many different landscapes, villages have been relatively unexplored in comparison. This study examines biodiversity in Eastern European villages across landscape complexity and proximity to cities in the context of social and economic well-being.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Sustainability
Published
2025-07-04
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01592-y
Citations
8
Primary Topic
Urban Agriculture and Sustainability
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
14.00
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article

Biodiversity and human well-being trade-offs and synergies in villages

Dorota Kotowska, Katalin Szitár, Riho Marja, Christina Fischer et al.
8 citations
Nature Sustainability
Urban Agriculture and Sustainability
14.00
article

Biodiversity and human well-being trade-offs and synergies in villages

Dorota Kotowska, Katalin Szitár, Riho Marja, Christina Fischer, Nikolett Gallé‐Szpisjak, Andreea Rebeka Zsigmond, Krisztina Sándor, István Urák, Brigitta Palotás, Borbála Szabó, Róbert Gallé, Dávid Korányi, Zoltán László, Gabriella Süle, Andràs Báldí, Lorenzo Marini, Melinda Kabai, Dragica Purger, Gábor Seress, László Somay, Orsolya Valkó, Jenő J. Purger, Edina Török, Balázs Déak, Attila Torma, Tamás Lakatos, Péter Batáry, Zsolt Molnár, Teja Tscharntke, Erzsébet Hornung, Csaba Koszta
article en
8 citations

Abstract

Europe’s rural landscapes, shaped over millennia, support high biodiversity but often have lower living standards than urban areas, potentially leading to social and environmental injustice. Here we studied biodiversity and socioeconomic settings in Central and Eastern European villages across landscape complexity and urbanization gradients. We surveyed the biodiversity of villages by sampling nine taxonomic groups, including plants, arthropods and birds. We found 15% lower multitrophic diversity in villages in agricultural than in forest-dominated landscapes. City vicinity enhanced human well-being (estimated with Better Life Index) but did not affect biodiversity despite a larger human footprint. In agglomerated villages in forest-dominated landscapes, biodiversity was high, with higher Better Life Index and footprint metrics, suggesting associations between biodiversity, socioeconomic status and, thus, environmental injustice. Our results show the high socioecological value of maintaining or restoring landscape complexity around villages and their green infrastructure, requiring top-down incentives and bottom-up initiatives. While biodiversity levels have been studied in many different landscapes, villages have been relatively unexplored in comparison. This study examines biodiversity in Eastern European villages across landscape complexity and proximity to cities in the context of social and economic well-being.

Nature SustainabilityVol. 8(8)
Eötvös Loránd University (HU), University of Padua (IT), University of Pannonia (HU), University of Bremen (DE), University of Szeged (HU), Babeș-Bolyai University (RO), Anhalt University of Applied Sciences (DE), Institute of Ecology and Botany (HU), Institute of Nature Conservation (PL), Veszprémi Érseki Hittudományi Fõiskola (HU), HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research (HU), University of Veterinary Medicine (HU), Kiskunság National Park (HU), Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania (RO), University of Göttingen (DE), University of Pecs (HU), Polish Academy of Sciences (PL)
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Urban Agriculture and Sustainability
14.00
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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