Healthy ecosystems essential to human health
IUCN Statement on the Opportunity of the World Health Day

Gland, 06 April 2006

Human health is increasingly dependent from the health of ecosystems and the conservation of biodiversity – yet the world is not addressing these vital links with the commitment and urgency needed, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) stated on the World Health Day.

Climate change, desertification, the relentless loss of species and habitats, and degradation of ecosystems are all environmental factors aggravating the health conditions of large parts of humankind, particularly the poor and vulnerable. While there is increasing regognition of the impact of polluted air and water on human health, the broader – and growing set of environmental factors still has to be addressed more consistently.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) confirmed that biodiversity and ecosystems continues to be lost unabated, with evident impacts on human wellbeing especially for the poor. Further, the MA warned that the degradation of ecosystem services could grow significantly worse during the first half of this century, thus hampering the possibilities of achieving the MDGs. Attaining appropriate standards of human health for all in such conditions would be simply impossible.

Ecosystem dynamics, or the ways that species interact with each other and with the inorganic parts of their environment, provide vital life support for all living things. We cannot live without the services provided by ecosystems, which purify air and fresh water from pollutants, maintain soil fertility, pollinate plants, and break down wastes, among many other services.

Unsafe water and sanitation kill 1.7 million people every year. According to WHO, about 6% of the world’s burden of disease is water related. One third of the world’s population today lives in countries already experiencing moderate to high water stress. Wetland ecosystems perform key hydrological and biological functions that are critical to human health, like water filtration, flood control, and groundwater recharge. Wetlands improve water quality by removing organic and inorganic nutrients and toxic materials from the water that flows across them. On the other hand, wetlands can be a habitat for disease vectors when management conditions are inappropriate.

Human health depends on the health of other species and on the natural functioning of healthy ecosystems. The use of wild species contributes directly to human health in many ways. Wild species provide a critical and varied source of food, ranging from wild fruits and seeds to fisheries products. Medicinal plants form the foundation of medicinal systems throughout the world, providing a basis for traditional medicine practices and healthcare, including in areas where modern medicine is often unavailable or prohibitively expensive. These plants also serve as raw materials and precursors for many modern pharmaceuticals. Wild species also provide a source of building materials, timber for construction, for example, and fuel for cooking and keeping warm – there is no health security without such contributing factors.

As we lose species, we lose the possibility to discover new medicine. Species use chemicals as protection, and these chemicals are the basis of medicine. Species also provide invaluable medical research models. One important ecosystem service is the holding of plant and animal diseases and pests in check by an array of predator-prey, and host-parasite relationships.

Recent outbreaks of the West Nile Virus, Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, SARS, Monkeypox, Mad Cow Disease and Avian Influenza remind us that human and animal health are intimately connected. A broader understanding of health and disease demands a unity of approach achievable only through a consilience of human, domestic animal and wildlife health - One Health. The rise of emerging and resurging infectious diseases threatens not only humans (and their food supplies and economies), but also the fauna and flora comprising the critically needed biodiversity that supports the living infrastructure of our world. The earnestness and effectiveness of humankind’s environmental stewardship and our future health have never been more clearly linked. To win the disease battles of the 21st century while ensuring the biological integrity of the Earth for future generations requires interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approaches to disease prevention, surveillance, monitoring, control and mitigation as well as to environmental conservation more broadly.

Poor people’s health is disproportionately affected by environmental factors, since they are already vulnerable to changes and have fewer assets available to face them. “There is a direct relationship between the health of ecosystems and the opportunities of the poor to increase their food security, improve their health, build assets, reduce risks and have more secure lives,” declared the Union at the 60 th Session of the UN General Assembly. “Conversely, land degradation, desertification, pollution, unequal access to water and productive ecosystems are all associated with declining human wellbeing”, the Union added.

The Union actively contributes to addressing the vital role of healthy ecosystems in sustaining human health. Three major areas of the Union’s current Programme are relevant to human health: water and human health; ecosystem management and its relationships with human health; and biodiversity conservation and ecosystem products and services that support human health.

Actions on water and human health include integrated management for the prevention and control of water-associated diseases; access to safe and sufficient water in support of human health; and the health implications and opportunities in wetland conservation and irrigation development.

Ecosystem management and human health addresses issues of species conservation in relation to human and animal health; the effects on human health of ecosystem degradation due to poorly planned development, conflicts, natural disasters and climate change; and ecosystem management for health promotion, linking environmental and health education.

In the context of biodiversity conservation, some of the Union’s programme areas have to do with present day concerns about human health, including emerging diseases. Other activities relate to natural resource management and food production (linked to food security and nutrition), food consumption, and harvesting, processing and use of medicinal plants.

Ensuring that wild species important to human health are used and managed in such a way that they are available to future generations and continue to fulfil their role in their wider ecosystems is central to the Union’s work. This includes increasing awareness of the importance of wild species such as medicinal plants to human livelihoods, particularly the lives of the rural poor; identifying species at risk from overexploitation; and promoting actions to bring unsustainable use and trade within sustainable levels.

Under a recently launched Conservation for Poverty Reduction Initiative, the Union is addressing the health of the poor through issues of biodiversity for nutrition, water management, local medicines, energy alternatives, zoonotic diseases such as avian flu, and the links between HIV/AIDS and the environment.

The AIDS epidemic not only undermines the achievement and future possibilities of development and poverty eradication efforts in affected countries, but it also impacts on the environmental and natural resource sector, prompting unsustainable use and overexploitation of some natural resources, reducing human capacities in environmental agencies and local communities, changing patterns of access to resources and lands. Initiatives based on the use, management, and conservation of biodiversity that mainstream HIV/AIDS can provide communities with additional resources (economic, food security, medicinal plants) and coping strategies to face the impacts of AIDS.

Those relying on direct use of biodiversity products and depending on the health of their immediate environment for daily survival already know how important ecosystems are to human health.

On World Health Day, the World Conservation Union calls on the international community to recognise the role that wild species play in supporting nutritional, medicinal and other needs in both developing and developed countries, and to take action to ensure a healthier future for both biodiversity and humanity, which depends on it.