Biodiversity and Health

Linking Life, Ecosystems and Societies

Serge Morand, Claire Lajaunie

• Publisher: ISTE Press - Elsevier
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780081011676
• Topic: Medizin
• Subtopic: Gesundheitswesen, Verwaltung & Pflege

There is a gap between the ecology of health and the concepts supported by international initiatives such as EcoHealth, One Health or Planetary Health; a gap which this book aims to fill.

Global change is accelerated by problems of growing population, industrialization and geopolitics, and the world's biodiversity is suffering as a result, which impacts both humans and animals. However, Biodiversity and Health offers the unique opportunity to demonstrate how ecological, environmental, medical and social sciences can contribute to the improvement of human health and wellbeing through the conservation of biodiversity and the services it brings to societies.

This book gives an expansive and integrated overview of the scientific disciplines that contribute to the connection between health and biodiversity, from the evolutionary ecology of infectious and non-infectious diseases to ethics, law and politics.

• Presents the first book to give a broad and integrated overview of the scientific disciplines that contribute to health
• From evolutionary ecology, to laws and policies, this book explores the links between health and biodiversity
• Demonstrates how ecological sciences, environmental sciences, medical sciences, and social sciences may contribute to improve human health

1

A Brief History on the Links between Health and Biodiversity

Abstract

The Rockefeller Foundation/Lancet Commission report on planetary health (2015) shows how improving human health has been primarily done to the detriment of the environment. The report highlights that global environmental change (including climate change, deforestation, land use change and loss of biodiversity) is a serious threat to human health. It proposes adopting the concept of planetary health, which is based on recognizing that human health depends on natural systems functioning properly. However, upon first inspection, the definitions of health and biodiversity do not show clear links between the two.

Keywords

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES); Ecological health; Ecosystem health; Environmental health; Manhattan Principles; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment; World Health Organization (WHO)

1.1 Introduction

The Rockefeller Foundation/Lancet Commission report on planetary health (2015) shows how improving human health has been primarily done to the detriment of the environment. The report highlights that global environmental change (including climate change, deforestation, land use change and loss of biodiversity) is a serious threat to human health. It proposes adopting the concept of planetary health, which is based on recognizing that human health depends on natural systems functioning properly. However, upon first inspection, the definitions of health and biodiversity do not show clear links between the two.

In the Preamble to its 1946 Constitution, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as spanfollows:

“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.

For the WHO, therefore, health is not only about disease, it is also and above all a state of well-being, both at an individual and collective level. Earlier in its history, the WHO embraced the importance of the environment and its quality as a contributor to human health and well-being.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992 defines biodiversity as:

“Biological diversity means the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part: this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems”.

The links between environmental diversity and health were approached from different angles at the Unesco Biosphere Conference in 1968 which studied the scientific basis for rational use and conservation of biosphere resources. The loss of diversity had already been associated with the deterioration of physical and mental health and the proceedings of the conference stated:

“Whether the challenges come from physical or social forces, the diversity of environments is of crucial importance for the evolution of man and his societies because the ultimate results of a stereotyped and equalized environment can be and often is an impoverishment of life, a progressive loss of the qualities that we identify with humanness and a weakening of physical and mental health. Our policy should be to preserve or to create as many diversified environments as possible”. [UNE 70]

1.2 Millennium Development Goals for Ecosystem Services

Nevertheless, it was not until the Millennium Development Goals and especially the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [MA 05] that a report on the state of the world’s ecosystems finally established a functional link between biodiversity, health and human well-being. This link is expressed through the notion of “ecosystem services”. The degradation of ecosystem functioning and associated losses of biodiversity have negative impacts on the quality of ecosystem services, thus affecting the safety, health and welfare of populations. The notion of ecosystem services emerged from the Ecosystem Approach, which is also defined by the CBD as:

“The ecosystem approach is a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way. Thus, the application of the ecosystem approach will help to reach a balance of the three objectives of the Convention: conservation; sustainable use; and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.

An ecosystem approach is based on the application of appropriate scientific methodologies focused on levels of biological organization, which encompass the essential structure, processes, functions and interactions among organisms and their environment. It recognizes that humans with their cultural diversity are an integral component of many ecosystems”¹.

The MA (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment) was implemented in 2001 to address the consequences of global changes of human well-being in ecosystems. This was done to provide the scientific basis for improving conservation and sustainable use of living resources. Over 1,360 global experts worked on the MA (Figure 1.1). A more precise definition of ecosystem services is given by the MA as:

Figure 1.1 Ecosystem services according to the Millennium Assessment [MA 05]

“Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. These include provisioning services such as food and water; regulating services such as flood and disease control; cultural services such as spiritual, recreational, and cultural benefits; and supporting services, such as nutrient cycling, that maintain the conditions for life on Earth”.

While any change in biodiversity can influence the contribution of ecosystem services to human well-being, biodiversity conservation is crucial for human development and reduction of poverty. This was therefore the first time that a link was established between the degradation of ecosystems and fight against poverty and its consequences, such as the state of health and well-being of populations.

These international approaches to biodiversity, well-being and health emphasize two aspects: the importance of scientific expertise and the importance of legal, governance and economic issues.

Moving from one conference to another (Figure 1.2, Box 1.1), the need for scientific expertise in biodiversity was increasingly highlighted, particularly at the Paris Conference (2005), which called for international expertise on biodiversity. This is what led to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Box 1.1).

Figure 1.2 Timeline of the main international conventions and texts relating to the environment, biodiversity and health (from [LAJ 16])

Box 1.1

Institutions, organizations, conventions and programs referring to biodiversity, environment, health and ecosystem services

International Institutions:

WB, World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org/

Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGI AR): http://www.cgiar....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1: A Brief History on the Links between Health and Biodiversity
• 2: Biodiversity, Cultural Diversity and Infectious Diseases
• 3: Loss of Biological Diversity and Emergence of Infectious Diseases
• 4: Loss of Biodiversity and Emergence of Non-infectious Diseases
• 5: Anthropogenic Stress
• 6: Biodiversity Response
• 7: Animal and Human Pharmacopoeias
• 8: Well-being
• 9: Ecosystem Services for Health and Biodiversity
• 10: Biodiversity and Health Scenarios
• 11: Governance of Biodiversity and Health
• 12: Ethics, Values and Responsibilities
• 13: The Role of Law, Justice and Scientific Knowledge in Health and Biodiversity
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index