Ministers, delegates and colleagues.
When we talk about biodiversity and health, we talk about how nature and biodiversity give us food, productive soils and oceans. Clean water and air. Medicines, cultural heritage and more. This is all true. But framing biodiversity as a resource – something separate, something that gives – has led to humanity converting nature, driving species to extinction, polluting ecosystems and pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
But humanity is not separate from or above biodiversity. This is never more apparent than when we spend time in nature. The science clearly shows that reconnecting with our ancient habitats, be it by walking in forests or plunging into cool lakes, produces mood-boosting endorphins. Being in nature is good for our mental health because it feels like a homecoming.
So, humanity undoubtedly is biodiversity, part of a complex web of interdependent species that has evolved over billions of years. And in a closed system such as Earth, what goes around comes around.
Two viruses have spilled over to humans per year for a century, most devastatingly in the COVID-19 pandemic. Climate change could lead to 250,000 extra deaths each year from 2030-2050. Antimicrobial resistance, strongly linked to environmental pathways, is currently predicted to claim 39 million lives between 2025-2050. When we harm biodiversity, we harm ourselves.
Humanity is at least finally learning. The One Health approach acknowledges that the health of humans, animals, plants and the wider environment are bound together. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls for the One Health approach to be integrated into National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans. And, of course, the Global Action Plan on Biodiversity and Health is on the agenda of this Convention on Biological Diversity COP.
We must adopt this action plan and implement it with a holistic, systemic approach that unifies action across health, environment, finance, industry and agriculture. One Health means One Society and One Economy. Everything is connected.
At the forefront of efforts should be Indigenous Peoples, who never forgot that humanity is part of nature, not above it. Indigenous peoples could help to solve many of the problems we face, if only we would make space for them to lead – which is why it is so powerful that Colombia has made advancing traditional knowledge a priority at COP16.
Our health cannot be separated from the health of the planet and its many species. So, I call on leaders to adopt and implement the global action plan. Listen to traditional knowledge. Integrate biodiversity and health considerations into all sectors and aspects of development. And ensure that biodiversity is conserved and restored for the health and resilience of all species, not just our own.
