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Life on thin ice

Greenland’s melting has been adopted by the world as its own problem. But for the islanders grieving their dissolving world, the crisis is personal, and dangerous

Opportunities to provide inputs to the work of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Reference: SCBD/OES/DC/AC/88272 (2019-067)
To: CBD National Focal Points, Cartagena Protocol National Focal Points, ABS National Focal Points, indigenous peoples and local communities, relevant organizations

Selective antibiotics following nature's example

With multi-resistant germs becoming more and more of a threat, we are in need of new antibiotics now more than ever.

Increasing tree cover may be like a 'superfood' for community mental health

Increasing tree canopy and green cover across Greater Sydney and increasing the proportion of homes in urban areas within 10 minutes' walk of quality green, open and public space are among the New South Wales premier's new priorities.

Can we feed 11 billion people while preventing the spread of infectious disease?

A new article describes how the increase in population and the need to feed everyone will give rise to human infectious disease, a situation the authors of the paper consider 'two of the most formidable ecological and public health challenges of the 21st century.'

Flesh-Eating Bacteria Infects Three as Experts Warn Warming Oceans Could Make It More Common

Within the last month, at least three people have contracted a flesh-eating infection from an ocean-dwelling bacterium — an occurrence that experts warn could become more frequent as the world's oceans warm.

Allergy Season Is Getting Worse, Thanks To Climate Change

Allergy sufferers are having a rough time of it this spring. If you're among them, and if you think it's getting worse, you're right–and climate change is at least partly to blame.

United Nations' World Health Day 2019

7 April 2019, Geneva, Switzerland

Better sewage treatment critical for human health and ecosystems

World Health Day on 7 April is a reminder that effective wastewater management and sanitation systems are vital for human health. The volume of sewage in the world is set to rise in line with population growth. Furthermore, the growth in global wealth means our wastewater, including sewage, cont ...

Biodiversity sustains human health

The ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) joins the international community in observing World Health Day on 7 April. The theme for this year’s celebration is universal health coverage. The World Health Organization reported that millions of people still have no access to health care. About 100 mi ...

Tree therapy: what we can learn from the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku

Chained to our desk, a computer monitor in front of our face, smartphone accompanying us wherever we go, the stresses of everyday urban life can sometimes seem insurmountable. With more than 7m years of human evolution, we have spent less than 0.1% of that time living in cities – and we have yet ...

The diets cutting one in five lives short every year

The food we eat is putting 11 million of us into an early grave each year, an influential study shows. The analysis, in the Lancet, found that our daily diet is a bigger killer than smoking and is now involved in one in five deaths around the world.

Health benefits of Lemon

Lemon, Citrus limon, belongs to family of evergreen flowering plants called Rutaceae. Lemon issued for culinary purposes as well as in cleaning and cosmetics.

Germ warfare: Biodiversity might be the cure for modern sickness – and lower health costs as well

Adelaide researchers are exploring a very big idea that would tackle the rise of allergies, asthma and immune diseases – and the spiralling cost of healthcare.

Urban biodiversity to lower chronic disease

Replanting urban environments with native flora could be a cost effective way to improve public health because it will help 'rewild' the environmental and human microbiota, University of Adelaide researchers say.

Conserving These Endangered Prawns Is A Tasty Way To Protect Human Health

Restocking rivers in tropical and subtropical Africa with a large endangered freshwater prawn not only provides locals with a protein-rich food source, but it also breaks the deadly life cycle of schistosomiasis

Communicating the health of the planet and its links to human health

The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on planetary health1 in 2015 argued that although human health has improved dramatically between 1950 and 2010, this gain was accompanied by unprecedented environmental degradation that now threatens both human health and life-support systems.

How you can change your diet to benefit both your health and the planet

A plant-based diet, with less meat and more vegetables, could help save both human health and the environment, according to a report released last month by the EAT-Lancet Commission on Wednesday, Jan. 16.

Shout out for peace and quiet

We all suffer stress and anxiety to some degree and reported stress levels are generally increasing. The Mental Health Foundation recently found that three quarters of people in the UK had felt so stressed in the past year that they were overwhelmed or unable to cope.

Sweating the small things

Matt Bonds was young and idealistic when, as a postdoc, he set out with economist Jeffrey Sachs, a rock star in the development world, in his quest to end poverty. But the Millennium Villages Project on which they worked—a package of interventions from seeds to schools to clinics designed to imp ...

Being surrounded by green space in childhood may improve mental health of adults

Children who grow up with greener surroundings have up to 55% less risk of developing various mental disorders later in life. This is shown by a new study from Aarhus University, Denmark, emphasizing the need for designing green and healthy cities for the future.

Biodiversity, people’s livelihoods at risk in Chindwin River Basin

The Chindwin River, the largest tributary of the Ayeyarwady River, is vital to the lives of thousands of communities in Myanmar. Its basin ecosystem offers ecological services and biological diversity that provide the essential needs for six million people, from drinking and irrigation water, fo ...

Research into chimp health benefits human, ecosystem well-being too

Chimpanzees’ health is not just an issue of concern for conservationists or animal rights activists.

Ancient Greek Wisdom for a Healthy Gut and Immune System

The ancient Greek Father of Medicine, Hippocrates penned that “all diseases begin in the gut” and that for true healing and optimum health that we need to exercise, “let medicine be thy food and food thy medicine” and the “natural forces within us are the true healers of disease”.

A less meaty Year of the Pig?

A few days before the Chinese New Year, staff at a popular Sichuanese restaurant in Beijing’s Dongcheng district were busy serving customers and taking reservations for New Year’s Eve. Meat accounted for at least 65 per cent of the dishes on the New Year menu, typical of the several restaurants ...

Seychelles ranked first in Africa for ocean health

The Ocean Health Index (OHI) has ranked Seychelles first in Africa after the latest global assessment of ocean health. Globally the island nation came out 33rd amongst 220 countries and territories. Morocco and Egypt were ranked second and third on the continent.

Feeding the Ten Billion

Our current diets are bad for our health and are harming the planet. Two billion people are now overweight or obese. Poor diet is the biggest cause of noncommunicable disease in the world, posing a greater risk of morbidity and mortality than unsafe sex, alcohol, tobacco, and drug abuse combined.

The new Lonyiri nature walks in Kidepo a great tourist attraction

From searching for insects, to birds, to different plant species with their unique names, animals, nature lovers in December braved the Lonyiri 25km nature walk in Kidepo valley national park and ventured out in the newly discovered nature walk, to indulge in nature.

It’s nature, stupid! A new deal for nature will improve the economy and wellbeing

In pursuit of wealth creation and economic development we are destroying the very nature we depend on - this must change, says Maxwell Gomera

The way we eat is killing us – and the planet

The distinguished medical journal The Lancet has issued not one but two apocalyptic warnings about our food in under a month. One of its special commissions reported earlier this month that civilisation itself was at risk from the effects of the current food system on both human health and the E ...

How to Eat to Save the World

With the global population set to reach ten billion by 2050, the challenge of feeding the world in a healthy and sustainable way will only deepen. Meeting that challenge will require major, long-term systemic changes.

Canada’s New Food Guide Is A Win For Health, Animals And The Planet

After years of research analysis, stakeholder and public consultation, and message testing, Health Canada has published an updated version of Canada's Food Guide.

Food in the Anthropocene

More than 800 million people still live in hunger, and many of us now eat more unhealthy than ever. Global food production remains the largest pressure caused by humans on the planet, threatening local ecosystems and the stability of the Earth system itself.

The diet to save lives, the planet and feed us all?

A diet has been developed that promises to save lives, feed 10 billion people and all without causing catastrophic damage to the planet. Scientists have been trying to figure out how we are going to feed billions more people in the decades to come.

World Health Organization: From climate change to HIV and Dengue, these are the 10 global health risks to watch in 2019

There are several health challenges around the globe. These vary from outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles also called rubella, and morbilli and diphtheria which is a contagious disease, increasing reports of drug-resistant pathogens, growing rates of obesity to the health impa ...

Biodiversity is more than just the forests

TOO often when we talk about biodiversity, it evokes a notion of forest destruction or species extinction. To many, it is just about the environment. Little do we realise, however, that in fact biodiversity is the foundation for human health.

Conservation Of Traditional Medicinal Plants In Asia Facing A Dark Future – Analysis

Anhar Rabiyah of the tribal Pannei, an indigenous group in Pangkep, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sikrip Piyaporn, an ethnic minority who lives in Pu Luong, Thailand and Tuyoc Ballanga of the Maeng Itneg tribe in Tubo, Abra, Philippines don’t know each other from Adam.

Will mainstreaming traditional Chinese medicine threaten wildlife?

Traditional Chinese Medicine is going global. Earlier this year, Chinese state media reported that 57 traditional medicinal centers were under development in places as far-flung as Poland, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, and France. By some counts, TCM can now be found in more than 180 countr ...

Nature is a rich source of medicine – if we can protect it

The Pacific yew tree is a fairly small and slow growing conifer native to the Pacific Northwest. The Gila monster is a lizard with striking orange and black markings from the drylands of the Southwestern US and Mexico. Two very different organisms, but with a fascinating connection.

Human Rights Day 2018

10 December 2018, Geneva, Switzerland

New partnership between the CBD Secretariat and HUMI to improve health through biodiverse urban green spaces

27 November 2018 - The Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Healthy Urban Microbiome Initiative (HUMI) are partnering to build a global movement for urban population health improvement through the creation and restoration of biodiverse urban green spaces.

Regional Capacity-building Workshop on Biodiversity and Health for the ASEAN Region

5 - 7 November 2018, Manila, Philippines

‘Poop vault’ of human feces could preserve gut’s microbial biodiversity—and help treat disease

Whether in villages on the coast of Ghana or in the mountains of Rwanda, asking for people's poop is a good icebreaker, Mathieu Groussin says. "Everybody laughs," says Groussin, a microbiologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. "Especially when we stress that we n ...

Call for the nomination of participants in the regional capacity-building workshop on biodiversity and health for the ASEAN Region, 5-7 November 2018 – Manila, Philippines

Reference: SCBD/SPS/AS/SBG/CRm/87681 (2018-077)
To: CBD National Focal Points and SBSTTA Focal Points of the following countries: Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Laos, Brunei

International Youth Day 2018 (http://www.un.org/en/events/youthday/events.shtml)

12 August 2018, New York, United States of America

World Population Day 2018: (http://www.un.org/en/events/populationday/)

11 July 2018, New York, United States of America

World Health Day 2018: "Universal Coverage, Everyone, Everywhere" (http://www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day/2018/en/)

7 April 2018, Geneva, Switzerland

Today on the occasion of World Health Day, it is important to note that human health ultimately depends upon the availability of clean air, fresh water, medicines, food, and fuel sources.

Message of the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Dr. Cristiana Paşca Palmer, on the occasion of World Health Day 7 April 2018

"Voluntary Commitments for Mainstreaming Biodiversity in the sectors of Energy and Mining, Infrastructure, Manufacturing and Processing, and Health" - Preparing for potential pledges of action by countries and partners to be announced at the UN Biodiversity Conference 2018, Sharm el-Sheikh

Reference: SCBD/MCO/AF/CE/87292 (2018-035)
To: CBD National Focal Points