The policy relevance of nature, biodiversity and health to WHO’s global and regional agenda

The need to protect and preserve nature and biodiversity is not new and has been endorsed by a multitude of actors across the globe. Related commitments particularly increased during the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity 2011–2020, continued and refocused by the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.

A nonexclusive set of key policies, international commitments and institutional agendas relevant for nature and biodiversity are listed below, showing the context to which the recent WHO overview report on nature, biodiversity and health by the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health contributes.

On a global scale

As the most overarching international policy context, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is devoted to protecting, among other things, natural resources and biodiversity, on land and below water. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 sets out the aim to “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”. SDG 15 asserts the intention to “protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”. Going beyond the scope of SDGs 14 and 15, biodiversity and functional ecosystems provide the essential resources and ecosystem services that directly support a range of societal sectors and economic activities. Biodiversity is thus immediately relevant to the achievement of SDG 1 on ending poverty, SDG 3 on health, and SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth, and will have significant implications for achieving zero hunger (SDG 2) and the tackling of inequalities (SDG 10).

Furthermore, the protection of nature and biodiversity requires progress on climate change mitigation (SDG 13) as well as more sustainable and responsible consumption and production patterns (SDG 12).

As one of the key agreements adopted at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the Convention on Biological Diversity represents a formal commitment by the vast majority of the world’s governments to maintain the planet’s ecological underpinnings. The Convention established three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources.

To support the goals set by the Convention and in order to lay good foundations for the SDGs, a joint report by WHO and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2015) was prepared. The report reviewed the state of knowledge on biodiversity and human health and served as a source of information to support the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda and the SDGs.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has recently provided a global assessment report on ecosystem services (2019), showing that the current global response to nature depletion and biodiversity loss is insufficient, and ecosystems are deteriorating more rapidly than ever before. The assessment report calls for a fundamental, transformative, system-wide reorganization encompassing technological, economic and social factors to conserve, restore and sustainably use nature.

Acknowledging the increasing damage to nature described in the above documents and assessments, the United Nations have established the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean. Commitment to and action on nature protection and ecosystem restoration would provide significant support to end poverty, combat climate change and prevent a mass extinction of species.

The WHO Global Strategy on Health, Environment and Climate Change was adopted in 2019 to scale up action on environmental health determinants, aiming at the prevention of environmental health risks by accounting for health in all policies and improving disease prevention and health promotion. In this context, the global strategy calls for the adoption of more cross-sectoral solutions, such as protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and the linked surveillance of pathogens in wildlife and human beings, in order to lower risk and increase preparedness for health threats resulting from human influence on natural ecosystems.

Following the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO launched a Manifesto for a Healthy Recovery from COVID-19 to provide an overview of the WHO prescriptions and accompanied actionables for a green and healthy recovery from the pandemic. As the first prescription, the manifesto highlights the protection and preservation of nature as the foundation of human health.

The One Health concept, endorsed by WHO as well as other international agencies, represents an approach to designing and implementing programmes, policies, legislation and research in which multiple sectors communicate and work together to achieve better public health outcomes. The One Health concept acknowledges that many of the same microbes infect animals and humans, as they share the ecosystems they live in. Efforts by single sectors cannot prevent or eliminate the problem. The long-standing tripartite alliance of WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) was recently joined by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and calls upon professionals with a range of expertise in different sectors – such as public health, animal health, plant health and the environment – to join forces and support One Health approaches and the broadening of the scope of One Health to include wider global environmental challenges.

At European regional level

The Global Environment Outlook (GEO-6) Assessment for the pan-European region indicates that biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation is continuing in the region. The key drivers of biodiversity loss are associated with increased land-use change, particularly agricultural intensification, urbanization and habitat fragmentation. The report calls for a greater application of the precautionary principle to protect the environment; improved environmental governance built upon well-designed policies with adequate implementation and enforcement; and increased international cooperation to address the multiple systemic, transnational and transboundary environmental problems and challenges.

WHO/Europe’s European Programme of Work puts specific focus on the better protection of the public against health emergencies – including pandemics such as COVID-19 – and the facilitation of healthy lives and well-being through, amongst others, health-promoting local environments. This work considers, for example, the health relevance of natural environments and ecosystem services as well as the One Health approach, ensuring that environmental risks affecting both humans and animals are tackled in an intersectoral manner.

Supporting the shift towards more sustainable and resilient societal structures and health systems, and acknowledging the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO/Europe has established the Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development in 2020 to elevate health and social care as societal and political priorities and critical components to sustainable development and social cohesion. The first output of the Commission is a call to action for governments, international organizations and stakeholders to rethink their broad policy priorities and to upgrade global governance of public goods, such as health and the environment.

Within the WHO European Region, the so-called European Environment and Health Process offers a shared platform for ministries of health and of environment to interact and discuss priorities for action on environment and health. Recent Member State surveys have shown that the health impacts of nature and biodiversity are of high interest to national governments, adding this to the list of environmental health topics on which countries seek technical support and evidence from WHO. Responding to the increased interest in this field, the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health provided a briefing on the subject to the European Environment and Health Task Force members in 2020.

Finally, showing the relevance of natural resources beyond the health aspect alone, the Green Deal recently established by the European Commission aims to mitigate climate change and environmental degradation, which are both recognized as existential threats to Europe and the world. To overcome these challenges, the Green Deal strategy has been established to transform the European Union into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy, where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 and economic growth is decoupled from resource use.