Biodiversity and human well-being trade-offs and synergies in villages
Péter Batáry, Róbert Gallé, Dávid Korányi, Tamás Lakatos, Balázs Déak, Nikolett Gallé‐Szpisjak, Melinda Kabai, Csaba Koszta, Dorota Kotowska, Riho Marja, Brigitta Palotás, Borbála Szabó, Attila Torma, Andràs Báldí, Erzsébet Hornung, Zoltán László, Zsolt Molnár, Jenő J. Purger, Gábor Seress, István Urák, Dragica Purger, Krisztina Sándor, László Somay, Gabriella Süle, Orsolya Valkó, Andreea R. Zsigmond, Christina Fischer, Lorenzo Marini, Teja Tscharntke, Katalin Szitár, Edina Török
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.