1 Introduction

The coronavirus pandemic, also known as the COVID-19 pandemic, proved to be the most dramatic global disaster for human health in the last century and the greatest challenge that humankind had to face since the Second World War [1]. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic caused not only a devasting and ongoing health crisis but also a global socioeconomic disruption [2]. To control the spread of the pandemic, authorities around the world generally responded by implementing repetitive and long nationwide lockdowns, curfews, travel restrictions and quarantines [3]. However, while the consequences of COVID-19 were successfully addressed through public health actions, the broad socioeconomic, cultural and environmental upheaval caused by the pandemic will have lasting effects for several years [4, 5]. In the aftermath of the pandemic outbreak, the reliance on services and goods provided by forests and green areas also increased significantly [6]. This study specifically focused on some possible lessons that we learned and still need to learn about the multiple roles of forests and green areas, especially in urban and suburban environments. The impact of cultural and socioeconomic factors on the citizen-green area relationship was also investigated. Moreover, we discussed how the sustainable use of forest resources can support economic recovery. We also suggested strategies for ensuring that the useful legacies of the pandemic endure.

2 Materials and methods

This study analyzed the scientific literature on urban and suburban green areas during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, this study included a search for the literature included in Scopus, one of the largest international bibliographic databases of academic journal articles [7]. Thanks to its significant availability of literature data spanning over 60 years, the Scopus database has progressively become an indispensable tool for any researcher and research team worldwide [8]. Therefore, Scopus was considered a reliable and exhaustive source of information for retrieving most studies on COVID-19 and its related themes [8]. The bibliographic investigation of this study involved a search for articles in the Scopus database up to June 2023. The target articles included the main issues of the health, socioeconomic and ecological consequences for citizens using urban and suburban green areas during the COVID-19 pandemic. The specific setting for the article search was as follows [7]:

  • Document type: article and review

  • Search field type: article title, abstract, keywords

  • Date range: all years to present

  • Subject areas: life, health, physical and social sciences, humanities

To collect all this bibliographical material, a combination of the following keywords was used: COVID-19, coronavirus, pandemic, epidemic, infections, illness, crisis, lockdown, quarantine, recovery, smart working, mobility, restrictions/limitations, mental/physical/psychological disorders/wellbeing, public health, happiness, comfort, social/private life, gatherings, lifestyle, metropolis/city/town, recreational spaces, leisure time, urban/sub-urban parks/green areas/forests/nature reserves, natural/seminatural areas, woodland, smart cities, ecosystem services, social justice, equity, wealth, income, poverty, green economy, ecotourism, biodiversity, socioeconomic/cultural/demographic/ethnic factors, social/societal values, environmental/urban/social policies, urban planning, urbanization, climate changes, and landscape connectivity.

We also integrated our search for articles with two other online scientific databases: “ScienceDirect” (https://www.sciencedirect.com/) and “Web of Science” (https://clarivate.com/webofsciencegroup/solutions/web-of-science). Only peer-reviewed articles were analyzed, and studies from gray literature (e.g., conference proceedings, local reports) were excluded. To uncover further related references, we utilized the snowball method by checking the works mentioned in the bibliographies of the articles included in the reference list of this study.

3 Forests and green areas rediscovered as propelling centers of healthy habits: will this last?

The COVID-19 pandemic massively affected our society, causing radical changes in people’s routines and daily mobility and pushing us to see public green areas from a new perspective [9]. To reduce the worldwide spread of COVID-19 respiratory infections, massive mobility restrictions were obligatory in almost any country, especially in the first months of the pandemic, thus restricting or prohibiting gatherings of groups of people [10, 11]. Many people’s social lives were kept to a minimum, and as a result, there was a very high demand for recreational spaces in numerous cities worldwide during the COVID-19 crisis [12,13,14]. The impossibility of travel significantly affected urban ecosystems, and because traveling to far places and working out in gyms were forbidden during the pandemic, many citizens gathered in nearby parks to relax and engage in sports [15]. Forests and urban green spaces thus became the focus of debates as recreational areas because of their contribution to the health and discomfort reduction of city residents [16].

Several findings support the importance of urban green spaces in difficult times [17, 18]. People look for urban green areas during critical times because of (1) the combination of predilections for natural areas that encourage happiness, comfort and public health; (2) the possibility of employing green refuges to avoid higher concentrations of people at home and in the city; and (3) increased habituation and socialization among the people using green areas during difficult times [19]. Proposals for keeping parks and green areas user-friendly for mental and physical health purposes during the pandemic specifically focus on longer-term effects [20]. Longer periods of self-quarantine can indeed worsen mental conditions and cause posttraumatic stress symptoms and other psychological disorders [21, 22]. Although studies about urban green spaces during difficult times generally noted an increase in use [12, 17], these results were restricted to users’ demographic structure [23]. Moreover, scientific research on whether leisure patterns are short-term responses to the limitations of the pandemic or are likely to endure due to changes in personal risk perception, social rules and adaptation to new environments is lacking overall [24, 25]. Further studies are therefore needed to find greater empirical evidence to corroborate the hypothesis formulated by various authors [25], who think that the COVID-19 crisis may profoundly modify our relationship with the public outdoors.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the certainties of modern societies, especially of those that are more advanced, whose outdoor recreational activities increased greatly to support coping with an unexpected global health crisis. The perceived importance of green areas became undoubtedly greater than before the pandemic. This positive and healthy change in collective behavior should be capitalized on and made lasting and widespread among as many citizens as possible across different age, gender, cultural and socioeconomic conditions (Table 1). Thus, local authorities will be pivotal in reinforcing these post-COVID healthy advancements by promoting societal values (e.g., solidarity), social cohesion, and awareness campaigns.

Table 1 Lessons learned and their consequences, lessons to learn and their possible solution about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on urban and suburban green areas
Full size table

4 Exclusive benefits of forests and urban nature: socioeconomic and cultural factors matter

Worldwide, the COVID-19 outbreak and the resulting lockdown actions encouraged the use of natural areas and urban green infrastructures [17]. However, the real use of urban green areas, personal motivations for visiting these areas and visiting behavior (e.g., visit duration, if alone or in company, how the destination was reached, what people do there) may depend on several aspects, among which socioeconomic, cultural and demographic factors may have played a significant role in the relationship between people and urban green areas [26]. In particular, variables such as education, marital status, ethnic background, and especially gender and age are all significant variables that predict urban nature use and people’s visiting behavior [27,28,29]. Scientific research also acknowledges that having accessible and efficient green areas that provide locations for a number of activities is significant for city dwellers [30, 31]. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated countermeasures generated either irregular or unfair possibilities for certain sociodemographic groups to access urban green areas [32, 33]. Highly well-read people and families usually have healthier lifestyles, including the frequent use of green spaces, compared to the average population [30, 34]. With pandemic limitations, these households could use remote smart working options more frequently and benefit from private or public urban green areas more easily.

In contrast, vulnerable people generally have less access to green areas, public or private, and have been disproportionately hit by the consequences of COVID-19 [25]. In fact, lower income households were stuck at their workplaces because people with lower education generally are more likely to have jobs that cannot be done from home, e.g., indispensable caring jobs and retail distribution [35]. Vulnerable groups also include people who are potentially more subject to mental disorders, such as old people, children, ethnic minorities, those with persistent illness, and those without children [22]. Limited opportunities to visit forested and green areas may also depend on the sense of security against contracting or spreading COVID-19, on anti-social behavior, and on poor services [36]. Overall, most studies agree with the fact that socioeconomic and cultural factors play a critical role in the intensity of use of urban and suburban green areas [37,38,39]. This implies that the use of such natural and seminatural areas is unequal, especially in large cities, because certain groups of citizens, generally those with lower income and education, do not adequately recognize the importance of nature for human health, thus avoiding the regular use of urban and suburban parks. Green areas can contribute to making cities more inclusive and reducing cultural and socioeconomic factors (Table 1). Urban policies of integration and social justice are thus urgently necessary, but to be truly effective, inclusive messages should go beyond cultural, socioeconomic and ethnic barriers.

5 Suburban forests as unexpected anti-pandemic green refuges: it is time for more interconnected cities

Urban and suburban forests are defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as "networks or systems comprising all woodlands, groups of trees, and individual trees located in urban and peri‐urban areas; they include, therefore, forests, street trees, trees in parks and gardens, and trees in derelict corners" [40]. Thus, urban and suburban forests have been recommended as strategic infrastructures in urban planning [13]. Indeed, these forests contribute to the health and well-being of citizens by providing numerous ecosystem services [41,42,43]. However, although the World Health Organization recognizes the preventive health-related services provided by urban and suburban forests to city dwellers [44], forested zones in metropolitan areas are declining, and their potential to generate ecosystem services is decreasing because of urbanization [45] and climate change impact [46].

Various studies note the importance of including the relations of dependence in cities with their surroundings, especially during hard times [47]. Other studies, in particular, showed increased activity by recreationists within municipal green spaces, residential areas and suburbs during the COVID-19 pandemic, further highlighting the important role of forests as green refuges [36, 48]. This view of parks and suburban forests as “green refuges” may contribute to city disaster preparedness; consequently, these green areas should be considered “critical infrastructures” [49]. City inhabitants generally show greater awareness and interest in cultural ecosystem services, especially when suburban forests are in the vicinity [16]. The proximity of not only urban but also suburban forests may encourage social relations, sense of place, and inspirational values [50, 51]. The perception of these cultural ecosystem services is important for the sustainable management of suburban forests, whose benefits, if fully understood, may lead to a socially recognized integration in regard to urban planning. Some authors, in particular, note that the assignment of a greater value to suburban forests may depend on the negative impact of urban expansion in terms of supplying ecosystem services [41, 52]. However, it is still an open question whether people give different importance to urban and suburban forests.

In particular, further evidence is needed to ascertain how city inhabitants perceived and used suburban forests during the COVID-19 pandemic. Certainly, the use of suburban forests increased, but its permanent use should be further promoted through awareness campaigns and proactive urban planning, e.g., through the creation of ecological corridors linking urban forests and green areas with suburban forests, thus setting up a network of “green refuges” that makes cities more nature-interconnected and able to recover from a pandemic more quickly. Overall, urban and suburban green areas proved essential infrastructures during health crises, but suburban forests are generally less impacted and are perceived as more pristine [46]. Suburban forests can thus act as epicenters of ecosystem services. An important lesson we learned from this general renewed interest in suburban green areas is that there is greater awareness about the limited space of urban green areas (Table 1). Promoting landscape connectivity between cities and suburban green areas will certainly strengthen the role of extracity natural areas as green refuges.

6 Forested cities as socially enhanced ecosystems: a new paradigm for urban policies

In the aftermath of the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, policy-makers and scientists began focusing on how city spaces should be planned to face potential future health crises such as pandemics. Quarantining, lockdown and social distancing were relevant countermeasures and will certainly be a fundamental part of contingency plans in countries and cities worldwide. However, recent studies have suggested that quarantining can have detrimental impacts such as social isolation, a decline in physical health, and greater psychological stress and symptomatology [22, 53]. In turn, the easy use of urban nature should be seen as one of the anti-pandemic proactive measures that can make a health crisis much more bearable for people. City green areas can indeed act as refuges and sources of resilience, namely, places for well-being, physical exercise and alternative ways of socializing [54, 55]. For the permanent recognition of forests as critical green infrastructures in pandemic times, urban policies should also highlight the importance of such green refuges for the functioning of society and its elements [13]. This would enable forest-related decision-makers at international, national or local levels to proactively report on these societal function benefits across different policy sectors [56]. This may comprise COVID-19-associated policy debates and future talks by relying on the lessons learned from the pandemic. In particular, the increase in political decisions on forests may prompt a strategic alliance among the policy domains of forestry and public health [57].

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically impacted all aspects of our society. As a result, mandatory limitations on social behavior and fears of contagion spread resulted in radical changes in how people enjoy metropolitan green areas. In particular, the 2030 EU Biodiversity Strategy envisages a greater role for urban green areas and urban forestry to restore biodiversity and strengthen physical and mental well-being [58]. Indeed, urban nature contributes to the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, supports biodiversity protection and is essential for guaranteeing and maintaining physical and mental health, as well as overall human wellbeing [50]. By generating a wide range of ecosystem services [59], forested urban areas are sites of leisure, meeting or sports activities, provide heat and noise attenuation and air filtration, and stimulate social and inclusive relations (Table 1). Societal policies, focused on city forests, can act as proactive anti-pandemic measures if public health and urban planning are integrated to increase the resilience of entire city communities.

7 Forests in pandemic times: from mirrors of inequality to socioeconomic vaccines

The COVID-19 pandemic worsened economic insecurity worldwide, especially in rural areas where business interruptions purred illegal and opportunistic tree clearing [60]. Indeed, the long persistence of weak law enforcement during the lockdown further intensified unlawful activities by forest-dependent people who, in some cases, may have even challenged successful decade-long conservation policies [61]. Moreover, activities such as forestation and reforestation slowed down, resulting in job loss for forest-reliant communities [62, 63]. The consequences of COVID-19 were especially disruptive in the forest ecosystems of those countries with greater socioeconomic inequalities [64]. However, forests are critical to the possibility of global post-COVID green recovery.

In policy debates at the national and international levels, many advocate for considering the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to shift to more sustainable systems through “green recovery,” rebuilding societies and economies to meet the 2030 UN agenda [65, 66]. A green recovery would first focus on environmental sustainability as a fundamental driver of faster economic growth and long-term development goals [67]. Certainly, forested areas have a crucial role in achieving these “green” targets [68]. Indeed, forests can not only act as social safe havens supporting livelihood security [69] but also significantly contribute to creating millions of permanent jobs, goods and services worth billions [70]. Given that the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent severe lockdown measures made our economies more vulnerable, governments of any country should identify recovery options that can boost employment, such as producing green jobs. Especially for countries that are rich in forest resources and landscape amenities, post-COVID recovery strategies should rely mostly on green sectors, including ecotourism.

The engagement of local communities in safeguarding ecological and biological wealth may help increase economic opportunities for poor people even in difficult times (e.g., pandemics), which hinder the recruitment of permanent and temporary workers. Forest authorities should encourage a more active commitment by local people through tax breaks and by enhancing the capacities of indigenous communities to follow legal and safety protocols while simultaneously patrolling and monitoring during pandemics or other calamities. Key concepts for incorporating forest-based livelihoods into green recovery should include considerations of wood resources as complex and integrated social-ecological systems [71]. The sustainable use of forests can contribute to not only restarting the post-COVID global economy but also recovering global biodiversity (Table 1), provided that policy-makers, ordinary citizens, civil society organizations, and the private sector all act synergistically.

8 Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic left humankind a number of legacies and lessons, some of which seem to be warnings, while others are opportunities for a better world. Urban and suburban green areas acted as crucial anti-crisis systems by mitigating the dramatic health consequences of the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic also taught us that more inclusive cities, with fewer cultural and socioeconomic gaps and a better interconnection with suburban natural areas, will make human communities more resilient to the next crisis, even if it is not necessarily health-related. The COVID-19 pandemic gave us new perspectives through which to view our world. One of these perspectives is that of developing ecological awareness for the sustainable use of natural resources, with consequent positive effects on the global economy and biodiversity.