The potential relationship between nature and Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is provided using cross-sectional macro-data collected including 17 countries of major developed and developing nations whose number of cases were greater than 500 in March 15th 2020. We found that the correlation coefficient is - 0.46 between fisheries stock average growth rate per capit a from 1994 to 2014 and number of COVID-19 cases in 2020. It suggests that the damage of lives under water and cases of COVID-19 might be associated.
As of January 27, 2022, around 300 million people had been confirmed as being infected with the novel coronavirus according to Worldometer (2022) and WHO (2020). The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak originated in 2019 and, within half a year, spread to six continents and over 200 countries and territories, so it is undoubtedly crucial from the public health perspective to develop vaccines (Malik et al., 2020; Machingaidze & Wiysonge, 2021; Corey et al., 2020; Kaur & Gupta, 2020; Soares et al., 2021; Murphy et al., 2021; Dean et al., 2021; Walter et al., 2022; Polack et al., 2020; Abu-Raddad et al., 2021; Krause et al., 2020; Razai et al., 2021; Biasio et al., 2021) and drugs (Kumar & Trivedi, 2021; Galindez et al., 2021; Asai et al., 2020; Muratov et al., 2021; Keshavarzi Arshadi et al., 2020; Khan & Al-Balushi, 2021; Back et al., 2020; Mullard, 2020; Arora & Bist, 2020; Wang & Guan, 2021; Shuman et al., 2020) and to maintain social distancing (Sun & Zhai, 2020; Syam et al., 2020; Baber, 2022; Saxena et al., 2021; Iachini et al., 2021; Romania, 2020; Curșeu et al., 2021; Unger & Meiran, 2020; Zhao et al., 2020; Narayanan et al., 2020; Painter & Qiu, 2020; Piao et al., 2021) while, at the economic level, helping businesses and the unemployed. With the outbreak not yet under control, it is prudent to understand and respond to it from a broad range of perspectives, especially that of people’s dependence on ecological resources.
However, little attention has been paid to the relationship between the outbreak and natural resource management. Matters that are not directly related to controlling the outbreak are often ignored, such as deforestation, air and water pollution, the consumption of wildlife, over-exploitation of energy, and the inappropriate management of natural resources (such as fisheries). Planetary health is closely related to the health of human beings, however, so a return to previous modes of resource management is inconsistent with the healthy, sustainable development of the earth. Thus, an in-depth exposition of the relationship between the outbreak and natural resource management may become a crucial factor in preserving human health in the long run while social distancing, vaccines are currently crucial for disease control.
When the development of vaccines, drugs, and social distance continues investigation in the proceeding literature (Malik et al., 2020; Machingaidze & Wiysonge, 2021; Corey et al., 2020; Kaur & Gupta, 2020; Soares et al., 2021; Murphy et al., 2021; Dean et al., 2021; Keshavarzi Arshadi et al., 2020; Khan & Al-Balushi, 2021; Back et al., 2020; Mullard, 2020; Arora & Bist, 2020; Wang & Guan, 2021; Shuman et al., 2020; Unger & Meiran, 2020; Zhao et al., 2020; Narayanan et al., 2020; Painter & Qiu, 2020), the relationship between the reduction of the natural capital and the pandemic is scarce. This study aims to provide evidence to present this relationship between the reduction of natural capital (e.g., fisheries) and the COVID-19 pandemic. As the outbreak is ongoing, a broad range of perspectives is necessary to understand the pandemic comprehensively. Highlight the importance of natural conservation to enhance the lives living environment.
A perspective of the correlation between nature (in terms of the natural resource management capability, including sanitary base) and diseases might provide evidence for understanding COVID-19 in a multidisciplinary manner. Previous scholars emphasize the relation between nature and sustainability, warning that economic indicators omitting natural resources and the ecosystem are misleading (Barbier, 2014; Dasgupta et al., 2015; Managi & Kumar, 2018; Polasky et al., 2019; Worldometer, 2022). This background motivated us to investigate the correlation between nature capital and the incidence of COVID-19.
Cross-sectional macro-data of 17 major developed and developing nations where the number of COVID-19 cases was greater than 500 as of March 15, 2020, were used. In the early days, when governments were not strictly involved in pandemic lockdown measures, the data might provide a close picture of the link between natural resources and outbreaks. The data includes the monetary-based average growth rate of natural capital, forests, and fisheries per capita from the United Nations Inclusive Wealth Report for 2018, while the numbers of COVID-19 patients and deaths as on March 15 were collected (WHO, 2020; Managi & Kumar, 2018). The list of 17 countries includes Austria; Belgium; Japan; Denmark; Netherlands; Sweden; Norway; UK; Switzerland; USA; France; Germany; Spain; S. Korea; Iran; Italy; China.
The descriptive statistics of variables are displayed in Table1. On average, there was 8805 infected COVID-19 case until 15th March 2020 among 17 major nations, and the average death of patients is 339. Regarding the natural capital growth in the recent decades, on average, the natural capital decreased by 1.05%, and the fisheries are reduced rapidly, reaching 0.9%. The average growth of renewable natural capital is slightly positive, whereas the average growth rate of the forest is negative values. The detailed information is presented in TableA1.
The correlation between the average growth rate of fisheries stock and the number of COVID-19 cases is −0.46 (see