sustainability Article Students’ Interests in Biodiversity: Links with Health and Sustainability Fernanda Franzolin 1, * , Graça S. Carvalho 2 , Carolina Maria Boccuzzi Santana 1,† , Andreia dos Santos Calegari 1,† , Ester Aparecida Ely de Almeida 1,‡ , João Paulo Reis Soares 1,‡ , Jessica Jorge 1 , Franciele Dutra das Neves 1 and Erika Romanholo Silva Lemos 1   Citation: Franzolin, F.; Carvalho, G.S.; Santana, C.M.B.; Calegari, A.d.S.; Almeida, E.A.E.d.; Soares, J.P.R.; Jorge, J.; Neves, F.D.d.; Lemos, E.R.S. Students’ Interests in Biodiversity: Links with Health and Sustainability. Sustainability 2021, 13, 13767. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413767 Academic Editor: Jordi Colomer Feliu Received: 31 October 2021 Accepted: 8 December 2021 Published: 13 December 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Centre for Natural and Human Sciences, Federal University of ABC, Santo Andre 09210-580, Brazil; carol.m.boccuzzi@gmail.com (C.M.B.S.); deiacalegari@gmail.com (A.d.S.C.); ely.ester01@gmail.com (E.A.E.d.A.); reissoaresjp@gmail.com (J.P.R.S.); jessicadjorge@hotmail.com (J.J.); francieledn@gmail.com (F.D.d.N.); erikaromanholo@yahoo.com.br (E.R.S.L.) 2 CIEC, Institute of Education, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal; graca@ie.uminho.pt * Correspondence: fernanda.franzolin@ufabc.edu.br † These authors contributed equally to this work. ‡ These authors contributed equally to this work. Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that sustainable actions to preserve biodiversity are critical to preventing new microorganisms from harming human health. In this sense, education and encouraging young people’s interest in local biodiversity are crucial to promoting its preservation and sustainability. This research studied the biodiversity interests of 14–15-year-old students in São Paulo State, focusing on the links between biodiversity and human health. The criterion of maximum variation was used to constitute a heterogeneous sample of students. Students answered a four-point Likert questionnaire. The items in this questionnaire were divided into categories related to the interest of young people in biodiversity, and these were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (Wilcoxon test). Categories of biodiversity linked to “health or human utility” were of higher interest to young people than those with no links to human benefits, such as “diversity of organisms”. These findings, along with the literature, showed that young people are interested in biodiversity issues associated with human health. Therefore, teaching biodiversity should reflect on new possibilities for making a more sustainable environment and promoting social and environmental justice, fundamental aspects of promoting and guaranteeing human health. Keywords: pandemics; biodiversity preservation; secondary school; biology education 1. Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has raised broad discussions on the different dimensions involved in promoting and guaranteeing human health, including the importance of biodiversity. Initially, the zoonotic virus SARS-CoV-2 was transmitted from a mammal to humans [1], an extreme example of the connection of the environment with human health. Most infectious diseases, such as HIV, MERS, SARS, H2N, measles, smallpox, diphtheria and Ebola, are caused by zoonotic viruses, potentially transmitted to humans by other vector animals, domestic, wild, or in captivity [2,3]. Although many of the zoonoses come from animal domestication, a newly emerging risk is the appearance of new diseases due to the increase in population and its impact on ecosystems [3]. In Brazil, the first case of COVID-19 confirmed by the Ministry of Health was in February 2020, and by August 2021, the country recorded more than twenty million cases and almost 600,000 deaths [4]. Of this large amount, São Paulo State (the focus of this research) had the highest number of cases (over 4 million) and deaths (over 145,000) [4]. In the São Paulo city, the analysis of the disease incidence and mortality is higher in the Black and Brown populations living in the poorest districts (Bom Retiro, Brasilândia, Cidade Sustainability 2021, 13, 13767. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413767 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability