Page - 349 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

349 systems, well-being tourism and various approaches, such as Healthy Parks  – Healthy People, health walks and Green Care, already support this business case. 15.3.3.2 Main Activities Recently, Finnish scientists have produced results suggesting that biodiversity loss and rising trends of inflammatory diseases  – two global megatrends  – may be related (von Herzen et  al. 2011). There is also scientific evidence supporting the differences in the presence of allergies between the people living in Finnish Karelia and Russian Karelia. According to the results, allergy is more common in Finnish Karelia than in Russian Karelia. People exposed to a greater number of nature contacts and diverse microbiota on the Russian side of the border seem to have more protection from allergic reactions (Hanski et  al. 2012, see also the biodiversity hypothesis presented by Haahtela et  al. 2013). The project Ecosystem Services and Human Health (2013–2014), financed by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, stimulated national dialogue on biodiversity and human health between environmental and health researchers, experts and decision- makers (Jäppinen et  al. 2014). Likewise, the project Ability to read nature  – creating business from green well-being (Särkkä et  al. 2013, available in Finnish only) and the Healthy Parks  – Healthy People Finland (HPHPF) programme (Parks and Wildlife Finland 2016) have produced relevant and comprehensive knowledge for the needs of service design, national planning and wider discussion (see Box 15.2). The Pan-European WHO-CBD  Workshop on Biodiversity and Health for the European Region, held in Helsinki (23–25 October 2017) promoted international dialogue on the subthemes: Human microbiome and exposure to microbial diversity in the environment; Biodiversity, health, food security and nutrition; Zoonotic and vector-borne diseases and One Health; Biocultural diversity and mental health; Promoting ecosystem and human health in urban landscapes; and Biodiversity, health, food security and nutrition (see WHO-CBD  Pan-European Workshop on Biodiversity and Health for the European Region, held in Helsinki (23–25 October 2017) https://www.cbd.int/health/european/default.shtml). 15.3.3.3 What Works Well Finland has built a good basis for the future developments on biodiversity and health issues through the analyses, results, policies and practical delivery of policies of the recent activities described above. As a small country Finland also has the advantage that networks of national health and biodiversity experts and administrative sectors are already quite well established. Finland also strongly participates in international discussion, which has been an important part of positive developments in the field of biodiversity and human health. National challenges are often similar between countries, and learning from  good practice is globally essential. 15 European Nature and  Health Network Initiatives