Nature is fundamental to the health of people and communities. But when the word “biodiversity” is raised to policy makers practical health interconnections do not immediately come to their minds. Our systems for managing ecosystems and those for managing public health are so separate that integrated work can seem perplexing if not daunting.
“Biodiversity” – or the layers of flora and fauna species, species relationships, and the ecosystems themselves – must be thought of broadly. The diversity of these beings, their interactions, and their habitats is what makes nature so valuable to our health and wellbeing. It takes a composition of different roles provided by plants, animals, fungi, and other species to ensure a healthy environment and healthy ecosystems. If we want our policies to shift to capture the value of biodiversity broadly ecosystem and public health departments need to join forces.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reports that 13 – 19% of the regional burden of disease is due to environmental factors. As in other regions, this number is well known to be an underestimate. For instance, some diseases presenting in adulthood and older stages of life can result from childhood exposures, or from cumulative exposures over many years, and are difficult or impossible to attribute. Environmental factors that negatively influence complex signaling pathways of certain organs, like the renal system, reproductive system, or cognition in the brain, are even harder to measure. Science may also not yet have the tools to do so. Even the most equipped countries lack the ability to track certain exposures to environmental degradation. Even if they do, some countries may lack the laboratories and tests or expertise to assess for associated diseases.
Our food systems show us how important it is to join forces and start thinking broadly about biodiversity and health.
Tamales are an ancestral food that continues to be enjoyed across the Americas today, but food ways are changing. In Guatemala, the preparation process for a tamal centers on combining corn masa with herbs, beans, or other ingredients and wrapping it into a tidy packet using a banana leaf or corn husk, which is then boiled in a layered pot. This practice is passed down through female relatives and depends on access to local ingredients and plants and also on traditional food and ecological knowledge. However, alternate preparation using plastic materials is becoming more common.
The vein of a leaf or husk has been used to tie the packet to keep it from falling apart in a boiling pot, and before it is unfolded to be eaten. But now plastic twine might take that role. Plastic bags are also used to replace banana leaf to cover tamales when they are layered in the pot to cook. The reason given is that leaves and husks might have gotten a little more expensive and a little harder to come by in the market. But what is the cost of the exposure to the chemicals leaking out of the plastic into the food? What will the damage be from pouring out the leftover water from the pot to the ground and soil where it can lead to even more exposures for people, as well as for insects, birds, pets, and others?
This problem is multidimensional. What changes the local availability of banana leaves and corn husks? What causes shifts in the traditional food practice and replaces knowledge of using natural materials with synthetic ones? Are there any local or national regulations for the use and disposal of plastic, including heating or burning it? Is there understanding among ecosystem managers and public health officials that plastic leaks harmful and ‘forever’ chemicals and negatively impacts the health of humans and other species? Is anyone educating women about plastics in food practice? Are ecologists and biodiversity experts tracking microbiome, habitat or species change from contamination?
Multidimensional problems are opportunities for governments to come together on intersecting issues. Approaching environment-health problems with both fields of expertise as well as both ministries of government means solutions will be shared. It is a way to think broadly about the environment and biodiversity while working efficiently for health.
Biodiversity is a significant economic, social, and environmental asset for all countries and encompasses complex interactions from gene to planetary scale. It warrants a dedicated position for systems thinkers on health interlinkages in national government. In many countries and subnational and local governments the department that looks at environmental degradation is different than the department that looks at health impacts. This needs to change.
Some countries in the Americas are starting to find a path forward on intersecting issues. For example, Antigua and Barbuda have a ‘Ministry of Health, Wellness and the Environment’ which focuses on providing universal access to health care and protecting the environment by “ensuring environmental protective services are effectively and efficiently delivered in accordance with international, regional and national standards”. Other countries are developing tools to assess some environmental threats. 15 countries of the Americas (Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S.) have recent (2023-2024) Environmental Health Score Cards analyzing air, water, climate, chemicals, radiation, and occupational hazards. Conservation donors could consider ways to supplement these with a biodiversity category.
The education sector is also looking at how to advance intersections on biodiversity and health. A recent mapping of higher education institutions assessed integrated research, partnerships, and networks worldwide on 6 biodiversity and health interlinkages (ecosystem services (e.g., pollination, food security and availability, nutrition, water and air quality), climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, the human microbiome, traditional medicine/pharmaceuticals, spiritual, cultural and physical well-being, and emerging infectious diseases). The findings show Latin America and the Caribbean ranks 5th amongst 6 regions with offerings. Yet, whereas North America ranked first, it mostly focused on just 2 of the 6 interlinkages reviewed (ecosystem services and climate change adaptation) and had limited offerings on other interlinkages. As noted in the mapping assessment, topics closely related to biocultural diversity and traditional ecological knowledge, such as spiritual, cultural and physical well-being, the human microbiome and traditional medicines/pharmaceuticals, were not well represented by most institutions. Higher education institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, which is home to approximately 500 different ethnic groups, 50 million Indigenous People, and nearly 450 languages, could see this as an opportunity to inform an important gap.
To tackle the tamal dilemma, and other environmental-health challenges in our daily lives, we need more systems thinking and more systems thinkers on biodiversity and health. Governments, education, and health institutions need to normalize collaboration between experts on ecosystem and public health. And this is the rationale and aim of the Global Action Plan on Biodiversity and Health, adopted by 196 countries in November 2024. Mobilizing worldwide action that reflects “humanity is part of nature, not above it” will take work. But it could start with an action as simple as protecting the integrity of how we make our basic foods at home.
*Text produced jointly with the Inter-American Research Institute on Global Changes (IAI). The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of their organizations.
Autor
Biologist, Family Medicine Clinician (PA), Policy Analyst. Consultant Advisor to the United Nations on environment and health. Senior Writer, Earth Negotiations Bulletin at the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Planetary Health Instructor at Edinburgh Futures Institute. Fellow at The New Institute.
