Biodiversity and Health
Human health is unequivocally linked to biodiversity, presenting a broad range of opportunities for jointly protecting the health and well-being of people and conserving biodiversity. Therefore, it is important to strengthen collaboration with the health sector and to mainstream biodiversity and health linkages into national strategies policies such as National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs).
For the health and biodiversity initiative, the JBF supported two workshops, held in Brazil and Mozambique, and a desktop analysis of NBSAPs to determine the extent to which the NBSAPs of developing countries in the Americas, Africa, and Asia addressed health issues. The workshop in Brazil addressed the mainstreaming of biodiversity and human health and the potential for recognition of biodiversity and health activities in Fifth National Reports. The capacity-building workshop in Mozambique lead to a commitment by the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region, to propose the establishment of a regional programme on biodiversity and health for Africa at the Third Inter-Ministerial Conference on Health and Environment in Africa in November 2013. The JBF project also supported the development of the guidebook Healthy Planet, Healthy People: A Guide to Human Health and Biodiversity which was published by the Secretariat in 2012, in collaboration with the Biodiversity for Poverty Eradication and Development project. The guide provides a range of examples on the links between health, biodiversity, and development.
