The same actions that threaten ecosystems endanger human health too. The risk is most acute in tropical, biodiverse regions
THE WORLD’S monitored populations of wild animals have decreased by an average of 68% in the past 50 years, according to the Worldwide Fund for Nature. Deforestation, intensive farming and the changing use of land are largely to blame. But nature can recover, provided it is given a chance. COP15, a UN biodiversity summit that took place last week, sought to do just that.
. These efforts are long overdue—and not just for the sake of wildlife. The same actions that threaten ecosystems endanger human health too.A daily newsletter with the best of our journalismGrowing evidence points to a connection between destructive environmental practices and emerging diseases. Exactly how one leads to the other is not yet fully understood, as the struggle to establish theshows .
Of more than 330 diseases which emerged between 1940 and 2004, nearly two-thirds were zoonotic, meaning they were transmitted from animals to humans, as with, for example, HIV/AIDS and probably covid-19. Of those over 70% originated in wildlife, as opposed to domesticated animals.
One probable reason for the increase in pathogens is that felling trees increases contact between humans and disease-carrying animals. Scientists found a correlation between the loss of forests in west and central Africa and outbreaks of Ebola between 2004 and 2014. The Ebola virus is thought to be transmitted by infected bats and primates, although exactly how is not yet fully understood. And interactions with other mammals are not the only concern.
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