Ecosystems and the services they provide (termed ecosystem services; ES) are of vital importance to human survival and wellbeing, although the mechanisms by which people benefit from them are still not fully understood. Despite this, ecosystems are threatened globally through unsustainable use. To date, a large proportion of ES data have been estimated based on land cover using a process called benefit transfer. Benefit transfer may capture the capacity of a space to provide a service but it assumes ubiquitous use (i.e., that every hectare of, for example, forest holds the same value as all are equally used). Thus, at each specific location, benefit transfer methods fail to capture if the service is actually realised, how it may be realised, nor any variation in populations or between socioeconomic groups. This is particularly problematic when considering cultural ES, the non-material benefits people gain from interacting with nature. My thesis aims to unpack ES flow, to illuminate how potential cultural ES become realised by understanding where people access these services and how this impacts wellbeing, using Wales as a case study.

In Chapter 2, I review the literature on the flow of ES drawing on models from complimentary areas of literature (animal foraging, migration and landscape connectivity). I consider how different theories may be used to describe how people access ES and propose that ES flow can be broken down into ‘nature to people’ (movement of nature towards beneficiaries) and ’people to nature’ (movement of beneficiaries towards nature). In the remainder of the thesis, I focus on the latter as the former has been relatively well-researched.

Through social surveys, I explore the distances people in Wales travel to access cultural ES, and how this varies across socio-demographic variables (Chapter 3). My results suggest that ecosystems very close to home (within ~1 km) are very important to day-to-day wellbeing. I use the same survey to explore the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on peoples’ interactions with nature (Chapter 4). I find that younger people spent more time, more often in nature during the pandemic and so likely received more ES and associated wellbeing benefits. However, older people showed the opposite pattern. Those who did not have access to a natural space at their home (i.e., a garden) during the pandemic were more likely to report a negative impact on their wellbeing; emphasizing the importance of having access to nature nearby. Finally, building on theory from Chapter 2 (i.e., that some ES are realised via a journey and not only experienced at a single point), I hypothesise that, when walking, running and cycling, people may (consciously or unconsciously) preferentially choose routes that maximise their exposure to nature. By analysing big data from the social media app Strava, I support this hypothesis (Chapter 5).

My thesis enhances the field of ES research by proposing a new theory separating the flows by which ES are realised (nature to people vs people to nature). My findings have implications for policy in Wales. I suggest that all residences should have private natural space and if this is unfeasible, nature needs to be accessible as close as possible, within a maximum distance of 1 km. I show that frequent interactions with nearby nature are important to wellbeing, therefore nature should be brought into all spaces in peoples’ lives such as workspaces, schools and hospitals. Finally, the influence of nature on small-scale spatial decisions when people are walking, running and cycling can be used by local government when creating and maintaining access and active travel networks, to encourage their use. This would support active, healthy lifestyles. The flow of people to nature is increasingly challenging in our modern world, therefore nature needs to become a constant thread in peoples’ lives.