World Wildlife Day: Health organizations should help “address the drivers of biodiversity loss,” say experts

03 Mar 2023 --- Health stakeholders need to help build a comprehensive biodiversity and health action plan to reach targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) set during the 15th UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15), urges a recently published article.

Anastasiya Timoshyna, director of strategy, program and impact at non-governmental organization TRAFFIC, wildlife trade specialists, tells NutritionInsight that she agrees with the authors’ plea. 

“The nexus of biodiversity and human health requires a truly multi-stakeholder approach.” 

“GBF creates space for global commitments to address the drivers of biodiversity loss and associated impacts on people. Various facets of ‘health’ – planetary, ecosystem, human, plant, animal – play an important role in the new architecture of these global commitments.”

Partnerships for Wildlife Conservation 
The UN has set “Partnerships for Wildlife Conservation” as this year’s World Wildlife Day theme. 

Timoshyna agrees, “Breaking the silos and engaging collaboratively across the biodiversity conservation and health sectors is particularly important to ensure the common agenda in which the ambitious goals of the GBF are met and the human health objectives are achieved.”

She adds that TRAFFIC brings together innovative and non-traditional partnerships to reduce illegal, unsustainable and unsafe trade in wild species, including stakeholders in the health and agriculture sectors and businesses involved in various aspects of the trade.

Today also marks the 50th anniversary of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which aims to ensure international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten the species’ survival. 

Health stakeholders According to the article, health organizations are essential in global biodiversity governance. 
The article published in the Lancet encourages health professionals to sharpen global dialogue on biodiversity and health to help prioritize actions in governments. They can use their technical expertise and new evidence on health outcomes and determinants, including Indigenous-focused knowledge. 

As such, these experts can boost the health dimension of environmental impact assessments, national ecosystem assessments and strategic environmental assessments to ensure these are included in decision-making. 

The authors urge global governance should pay more attention to how conservation, sustainable use, equitable access and benefit sharing of biodiversity are linked to and affect global health, health equity and justice.

They add that nature and its destruction deserve greater attention in global governance as they shape the epidemiology of communicable and non-communicable diseases, such as mental health. 

Disease risks 
Timoshyna explains that the links between health and biodiversity governance include the “reliance on wild species (plants, fungi and animals) for nutrition and food security, traditional and modern medicines and the need to address the potential risks of disease spillover, associated with the trade in wild species.” 

In its project Wildlife Trafficking, Response, Assessment and Priority Setting, TRAFFIC cooperates with the International Union for Conservation of Nature and critical actors in transport, finance, wildlife forensics and behavioral change sectors. 

The project aims to reduce potential zoonotic disease risks associated with trade in wild animals by mapping out where actors along the supply chains must mitigate such risks. Zoonotic viruses live in animals but can infect humans, such as the COVID-19 virus.

“This also includes studying existing systems that could be adapted to improve existing wildlife trade management – including traceability to ensure compliance with risk management measures between source and end-use,” adds Timoshyna. 

Sustainable trade in wild species 
Timoshyna notes that sustainable use and trade in wild species contribute to the conservation of species and ecosystems.

“Wild species use and trade – often invisible in policies, statistics and reporting – needs to be integrated into the wider narratives, such as nature-positive, green economy, natural capital, sustainable consumption and production.”Partnerships are pivotal in Wildlife conservation, says the 2023 UN World Wildlife Day (Image credit:  Xavi Reñé).

She notes that to maximize the delivery of the GBF commitments, we must establish strong partnerships across various sectors, such as businesses or the financial industry. 

Moreover, indicators for measuring and adaptive managing use and trade in wild species must be developed and rooted in national-level metrics.

Global biodiversity governance 
The GBF was one of the primary outcomes of the COP15 and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The framework aims to advance policies, regulatory measures and investments to reduce biodiversity loss risks and restore natural ecosystems. 

Instead of focusing on human health, the GBF recognizes the interconnection of the health of all species and planetary health. 

It calls for health professionals to support the expansion of interdisciplinary biodiversity education and integrate holistic biodiversity-health approaches into national biodiversity and health plans.  

At COP15, over 190 countries agreed to preserve 30% of the planet’s land and seas to halt all biodiversity loss by 2030, committing US$200 billion annually for this goal.

By Jolanda van Hal