Cortesia de CicloVivo

树木应当成为城市公共健康基础设施
Cities Should Think of Trees as Public Health Infrastructure

由专筑网李韧，蒋晖编译

种有行道树的街道对于人们的身心健康十分有益，因此可以考虑将它们列入健康基金会。自然保护协会（The Nature Conservancy）的全新研究结果恰恰证明了这一点。

白皮书是一份官方的指导性文件，其中详细地描述了这个的问题，指出问题的起因、概念，以及解决方案。这份文件以美国国情为基础，在美国，树木的种植和维护只得到了政府预算1%的三分之一而已。因此，美国城市每年的树木损失数据为400万。

该协会的负责人说：“如果通过简单的行动，能够让城市领导人采取措施，以减少大众的肥胖与抑郁的症状，并且提高企业生产力，提升教育成果，减少居民哮喘与心脏病的发病几率。城市树木能为人们带来的好处远远不止这些。”

事实上，只有一部分人相信该数据。据估算，美国城市的每位人口每年平均花费8美元用于填补资金链，并且防止城市树木的减少。

不平等投资

树木种植的投资，亦或是对于现有树木的维护，总是出现资金不足的问题。有证据表明，许多城市在对于树木方面的投资较前几十年要少一些。

普遍而言，城市自然的现状与居民的收入水平挂钩，并且还会导致居民健康的巨大差异。在美国的一些城市，不同地区的生活水准相差很大，虽然并不是所有的健康差异都与树木有关，但是研究者相信，较少的树木并不利于人们的生活。

如何让树木遍布城市
   
这份白皮书也说明了一些方法与策略：

• 鼓励人们自发种植树木；
• 加强人们的交流，促进公共健康机构和环境机构之间的合作；
• 将树木的经济价值、公园与将健康目标与成果相联系；
• 加强对公众的教育，让人们了解树木与健康、经济之间的关系。
  

来源：CicloVivo

Did you know that tree-lined streets are proven to be beneficial to physical and mental health? So why not include them in health funding? The Nature Conservancy's new research demonstrates the number of reasons why this should be done.
The White Paper is a kind of guide, an official document, detailing a particular problem, indicating causes, concepts, and solutions to address it. The document is based in the United States, where less than a third of 1% of municipal budgets are spent on planting and tree maintenance. And, as a result, US cities lose four million trees a year.
"Imagine if there was a simple action that city leaders could take to reduce obesity and depression, improve productivity, increase educational outcomes, and reduce asthma and heart disease among its residents. Urban trees offer all these benefits and more," says the organization.
As we know, only some are convinced when numbers come into play. It was estimated that spending eight dollars per person once a year on average in an American city could fill the funding gap and prevent the loss of urban trees.

Unequal Investment
Investment in planting new trees - or even taking care of those that exist - is perpetually underfunded. Despite the evidence, the report states that cities are spending less on trees than in previous decades.
Frequently, the presence or absence of urban nature is linked to the income level of a neighborhood, resulting in enormous inequalities in health. In some American cities, life expectancies in different neighborhoods, located a few miles away, may differ by up to a decade. Not all of this health disparity is connected to tree coverage, but researchers are increasingly confident that neighborhoods with fewer trees have worse health outcomes.

How to Plant More Trees in Cities
The document highlights a number of methods that can be applied by public and private power:

• Implementation of policies to encourage the private planting of trees.
• More municipal exchanges that facilitate the collaboration of various departments, such as public health agencies and environmental agencies.
• Link the financing of trees and parks to health goals and objectives.
• Invest time and effort in educating the population about the tangible benefits of public health and the economic impact of trees.
  

Via CicloVivo.