Fair access to the environment
Environmental Justice as Distributive Justice
‘We all want quiet. We all want beauty. We all need space’. — Octavia Hill, Founder of the National Trust
Biodiversity provides the foundation of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life. Access to the natural environment is important to living a good life. The benefits of engagement with nature are well documented: health, well-being, and happiness are all improved when people connect with the natural world.[1]
For this reason, access to nature should be central to political thinking about how to fairly distribute goods across people. Just as political authorities ought to ensure a fair distribution of traditional political goods such as equal opportunity or liberty, so they ought to deliver a fair distribution of access to the natural environment. Political philosophers call this political requirement ‘distributive justice’. This approach sees environmental justice as a dimension of distributive justice.
‘One in five people in England do not have a garden, or access to parks and open fields. Nature-rich spaces FOR ALL are vital to create healthy communities, to reduce stress on our NHS and to help our struggling wildlife to recover. ALL neighbourhoods need nature, and the Government must deliver.’
— Gillian Burke, BBC’s Springwatch presenter, Biologist and Vice President of The Wildlife Trusts
Examples in action
Birmingham’s City of Nature Plan
In its vision of a green and fair city, citizens and diverse communities have equal access to parks and high-quality green spaces wherever they live, as well as to training and green jobs – ‘all our communities have the same opportunities, and no one is left behind’.
Green Minds Plymouth: Green Hubs
The Green Communities team, made up of a National Trust ranger and a Plymouth City Council officer, works alongside local communities in each nature neighbourhood to create spaces that support people feel more connected to nature and improve wildlife in their local nature places.
Wildlife & Countryside Link – Wilder by Design Campaign
Wildlife and Countryside Link is the largest environmental and wildlife coalition in England, bringing together and empowering 97 charitable organisations. Its Access and Wellbeing Working Group advocates for equitable access to high-quality green and blue spaces and collaboratively influences policy and legislation that improve people’s access to, connection to, and engagement with nature.
Nature Towns & Cities
Nature Towns and Cities is a coalition of public, private and third-sector organisations, creating better access to green and blue space close to home for millions more people living in urban areas lacking vital access to nature.
‘Having access to wild places and wildlife shouldn’t be a privilege, but a part of everyday life. We know how much people treasure time spent in nature near where they live but for many communities this simply isn’t possible. The most deprived areas have nine times less green space than the wealthiest – and poorer areas are where people’s health is the worst.‘
— Craig Bennett, Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts
Further Reading
- Andrew Dobson, Justice and the Environment: Conceptions of Environmental Sustainability and Theories of Distributive Justice, Oxford 1998. Link.
- Simon Caney, ‘Global Distributive Justice and the Environment, in Tinnevelt, R., Verschraegen, G. (eds) Between Cosmopolitan Ideals and State Sovereignty, Palgrave Macmillan 2006. Link.
- John Töns, John Rawls and Environmental Justice, Routledge 2021. Link.
[1] Report by Natural England, ‘The People and Nature Surveys’. Link. Report by Mental Health Foundation, ‘Nature: How connecting with nature benefits our mental health’. Link. Bowler, D.E., Buyung-Ali, L.M., Knight, T.M. et al. A systematic review of evidence for the added benefits to health of exposure to natural environments. BMC Public Health 10, 456 (2010). Open access link.