IUCN COMMISSION GROUP

IUCN CEM Human Health and Ecosystem Management Thematic Group

Group leadership

Dr Paula PRIST

Dr. Paula Ribeiro Prist is a Senior Programme Coordinator for Forest and Grasslands Unit at IUCN. A biologist by training, Dr. Prist holds a master's, doctorate and post-doctorate in landscape ecology from the University of São Paulo, with a sandwich period at Columbia University, United States, and the University of Queensland, Australia. Her line of research focuses on trying to understand how to create healthy landscapes for people, with a focus on multifunctional landscapes that can mitigate climate change, provide ecosystem services and also provide positive health outcomes. Her long-term plan is to contribute to the development of high-quality research to understand how conservation can contribute to the maintenance of human health and how the management of tropical landscapes can be done to create landscapes with low risk of transmission of zoonotic diseases and high maintenance of human health. She worked with EcoHealth Alliance for four years and was a Co-Lead Author of the next IPBES Nexus. Currently she leads the IUCN thematic group of human health (300 - 1000 members), is a member of the International Program Officer for the Future Earth One Health group and part of the STAR-IDAZ & GloPID-R - One Health Working Group.

Dr Raquel CARVALHO

Raquel Carvalho is a biologist (UFOP) and Ph.D. in Ecology and Conservation of Natural Resources (UFU). Currently, a postdoctoral researcher in the Biota Síntese Project, working directly with the challenge of zoonotic diseases. Her research expertise lies at the interface between biodiversity ecology and ecosystem conservation, essentially in tropical areas. This involves understanding the consequences of human-driven disturbances, climate-related stressors and landscape structure on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. More recently, her interests have also focused on synthesis research about Amazonian terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity, to help the process of decision making. She also participated in the co-developing TAOCA, an ecological database of terrestrial fauna of the Brazilian Amazon.

Human health is closely linked to the health of our ecosystems and is a compelling example of integrating nature and biodiversity to promote its wider value. Evidence is increasingly emerging linking environmental degradation with the loss of human health, but these relationships are complex and still poorly understood. This thematic group seeks to understand the relationships between ecosystem management, and human health, and to develop strategic research agendas to generate the knowledge needed to prevent future pandemics and include human health maintenance into policy decisions.

Overview

Human health is intimately interconnected with biodiversity and the health of our ecosystems and is a compelling example of mainstreaming biodiversity and ecosystems to promote their broader value. For example, biodiverse influence the provision of natural products and genetic resources, which form the basis for both traditional medicine and modern pharmaceuticals. An estimated 70–80% of the global population depend on some form of traditional medicine for their primary health care and seventy-five percent of all antibacterial, antiviral and antiparasitic drugs approved by the United States have natural product origins (Marselle et al. 2021). Biodiversity also affects physical health - people living in more biodiverse areas and exposed to higher fungal and fauna diversity are less likely to develop allergic sensitization and to have improved lung function (Marselle et al. 2021).

Human activity is rapidly transforming most of Earth’s natural systems. Based on this, we explore the relationships between human and ecosystem health, well-being, and biodiversity, in their most complex forms. Integrating human health objectives into natural resource management promotes positive feedback and co-benefits between ecosystem health and biodiversity conservation and can provide programmatic advantages for organizations seeking public buy-in.

Priorities

Identify the strength of relationships between disease emergence and its hypothesized drivers; and apply these relationships to models for ecological restoration and rewilding.
Determinate the epidemiological, ecological and socio-economic indicators indispensable for the protection and/or reduction of disease risk of protected areas.
Justify the necessity to take into account the biodiversity and protected areas for the reduction of disease outbreaks. These include primary factors related to ecological and political aspects.
Evaluate epidemiological, ecological and socio-economic indicators involved in the risk of bidirectional transmission, outbreak and maintenance of diseases.

Mission

The CEM Ignite Team - Human Health and Ecosystem Management (HH&EM) Task Force as a transdisciplinary initiative is integrated by a consolidated group of specialists with expertise in ecosystems, public health and economics. The mission of this Task Force is to explore, identify and advise on relevant information, tools, capacity and priorities to monitor health of ecosystems and guide management strategies.

Vision

Our vision is to understand the relationships between ecosystem management, and human health, and to develop strategic research agendas to generate the knowledge needed to prevent future pandemics.

Objective

To explore relationships between human and ecosystem health, well-being, and biodiversity. Integrating human health objectives into natural resource management promotes positive feedback and co-benefits between ecosystem health and biodiversity conservation and can provide programmatic advantages for organizations seeking public buy-in.

Credit: Paula Prist, bushmeat being sell in a market in tropical areas