A living countryside is not a luxury but a necessity for the human population; if you let conservation go hang until your pockets are jingling there will be a lot less to conserve - Simon Barnes, columnist, The Times (27.4.2013)

The truly healthy environment is not merely safe but stimulating - William H Stewart

If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man - Albert Einstein

We have lost sight of the dependence we have on nature in economics - Tony Juniper, sustainability and environment adviser (2013)

Nature is our biggest ally in poverty reduction and achieving human welfare - Tony Juniper, sustainability and environment adviser (2013)

Economy without ecology means managing the human nature relationship without knowing the delicate balance between humankind and the natural world - Satish Kumar, ecological campaigner (2008)

Without the land, the rivers, the oceans, the forests, the sunshine, the minerals and thousands of natural resources we would have no economy whatsoever - Satish Kumar, ecological campaigner (2008)

Nature is not a drag on growth. Its protection is an unavoidable prerequisite for sustaining economic development - Tony Juniper, sustainability and environment adviser (2013)

An agricultural landscape produces food but it also provides water, requires biodiversity to underpin soil function, pollination and other useful services, and also has value to society in terms of aesthetics and recreation - Tim Benton, UK Global Food Security programme (2012)

Rather than think about fields producing food, and the rest of the land producing everything else, we need to think about managing integrated, multifunctional, landscapes - Tim Benton, UK Global Food Security programme (2012)

From Indian vultures to Chinese bees, Nature provides the 'natural services' that keep the economy going - Tony Juniper, sustainability and environment adviser, 'What has nature ever done for us?' (2013)

From the recycling miracles in the soil; an army of predators ridding us of unwanted pests; an abundance of life creating a genetic codebook that underpins our food, pharmaceutical industries and much more, it has been estimated that these and other services are each year worth about double global GDP - Tony Juniper, sustainability and environment adviser, 'What has nature ever done for us?' (2013)

Let the clean air blow the cobwebs from your body. Air is medicine - Lillian Russell (1862-1922)

In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth - Rachel Carson, Our Ever-Changing Shore