How do you make the people of the world healthier? For the longest time, the answer was to treat the myriad ailments that plague the human race.
But in recent years, experts have come to have a more expansive view of health. Many are finally acknowledging that human health is inextricably linked to the health of animals, both wild and domestic, and the health of the planet.
This philosophy is embodied in what is known as the One Health approach. It posits that people can’t be healthy if they are drinking polluted water or living side-by-side with disease carrying livestock, and calls for holistic solutions that make people, animals and the planet better off.
“The environment is an essential pillar of the One Health approach,” says Doreen Lynn Robinson, Director of Biodiversity and Land at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) “Tackling the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste will help foster a sustainable future where people, animals and the planet can thrive together,” she says.
From 20 – 23 September, scientists, policymakers, representatives of international institutions, civil society and the private sector will gather in Cape Town, South Africa for one of the largest global forums dedicated to advancing the One Health approach.
The meeting comes ahead of the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention of Biological Diversity in Cali, Colombia. At this key October global gathering, countries are expected to adopt an international plan designed to bolster biodiversity and improve human health. Ahead of those gatherings, we sat down with UNEP’s Robinson to discuss the central role that the environment plays in achieving the long-term goals of One Health.
Why is it so important to include the environmental dimension in One Health?
Doreen Lynn Robinson (DR): One Health is based on the principle that you cannot have healthy people in an unhealthy environment and that the health of humans, animals and ecosystems are deeply intertwined. Addressing one aspect without considering the others will only lead to incomplete or unsustainable solutions.
The Eighth World One Health Congress will be taking place in Cape Town this month. What are some of the major issues on the agenda?
DR: One Health has traditionally been concerned mostly with public and animal health. That has sometimes come at the cost of understanding how biodiversity loss, pollution and climate change can exacerbate health risks, including the spread of antimicrobial resistance and diseases such as COVID-19, Ebola and SARS. At the same time, the environment is the source of health solutions, as it provides the ecosystem services to offer clean water and air, nutrient rich and diverse diets and medicines.
The Cape Town congress will explore these links. There will be a session that examines how intensive livestock rearing has fostered the spread of zoonotic diseases through pathogens that jump between animals and humans.
Also on the agenda will be a session on how the overuse of antibiotics is feeding the rise of superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics. As well, the gathering will look at how to better integrate the viewpoints of women, youth and Indigenous Peoples and their communities into the One Health approach.
What is UNEP’s role in the One Health approach?
DR: We know that healthy ecosystems act as natural buffers between wildlife, livestock and humans, and can reduce the chances that diseases will jump between the three groups. Unfortunately, industrial agriculture, deforestation and other human activities are shrinking natural spaces. This changes many factors tied to disease risk, including potentially driving up risks from those pathogens capable of causing a pandemic.
UNEP is the world’s leading authority on the environment, and we have spent more than five decades working to conserve, restore and sustainably use ecosystems. We’re bringing that experience to the One Health alliance, and helping countries and communities around the world rebuild their natural defense against many health threats, from disease to malnutrition to respiratory and water-borne illnesses.
How can the full implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), the landmark 2022 accord to conserve and restore the natural world, support the One Health approach and vice versa?
DR: Implementing the GBF by promoting healthy ecosystems, means unpolluted water, breathable air, non-toxic food, better management of interactions between humans and wild animals to avoid spread of disease, strengthened traditional knowledge for medicines and well-being and many other things.
One Health can contribute to achieving the targets of the framework by fostering collaboration across sectors to find solutions that achieve real co-benefits. One Health practitioners can jointly manage medical waste much better, including chemicals and plastics, so that it doesn’t wind up in our rivers and oceans. They can change farming and land use practices to reduce land degradation and halt the conversion of healthy ecosystems which are currently eating away at the very foundation for life on earth for all of us.
Later this year in Cali, Colombia leaders will gather for the 16th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. There, a draft Biodiversity and Health Action Plan will be presented for Member States to adopt. Can you tell us what this plan is and why it’s important?
The Biodiversity and Health Action Plan is essentially a bridge that connects the environment and human health. It will include recommendations designed to help countries bolster their biodiversity, including by protecting and restoring natural spaces, while at the same time, improving the health of people. It encourages governments to take a holistic view when making policy, including, for example, linking national health strategies with national plans to protect biodiversity. The one health approach will be important for implementation of this plan and so it is essential that parties adopt the plan at the COP.
What needs to be done to translate the principles of One Health into tangible results?
DR: We need all hands on deck. Governments must incorporate One Health principles into national policies, including through creating regulations that address the interconnection between human health, animal health and ecosystems.
We need financial investments in One Health that go well beyond a disease only focus, including funding for research and the implementation of on-the-ground projects. We need to build skills and capacities of human and animal health professionals and environmental practitioners on the One Health approach, so they can deliver critical integrated solutions in communities around the world. And we need to raise awareness about One Health, and particularly the environmental aspects, among the public.
Are you optimistic we’ll be able to do all that?
Yes. Progress has already been made in a lot of these areas. But there’s no doubt we need to ramp up these efforts if we’re going to create a healthier future for all living things on this planet.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
The planet is experiencing a dangerous decline in nature. One million species are threatened with extinction, soil health is declining and water sources are drying up. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, sets out global targets to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030. It was adopted by world leaders in December 2022. To address the drivers of the nature crisis, UNEP is working with partners to take action in landscapes and seascapes, transform our food systems, and close the finance gap for nature.
