On the occasion of World Environment Day, WHO calls for a healthy and green recovery from COVID-19 that places the protection and restoration of nature central.

A recently launched WHO Manifesto calls for decisive action to address the root causes of the COVID-19 pandemic by reducing social inequalities and ecosystem degradation, and transforming the way we relate to the environment in which we live.

A Healthy and Green Recovery

Attempting to save money by neglecting environmental protection, emergency preparedness, health systems, and social safety nets, has generated a false economy – and the bill is now being paid many times over.  The world cannot afford repeated disasters on the scale of COVID-19, whether they are triggered by the next pandemic, or from mounting environmental damage and climate change. Going back to “normal” is not good enough.

Decisions made in the coming months, to maintain and eventually resuscitate economic activity, can either “lock in” economic development patterns that will do permanent and escalating damage to the ecological systems that sustain all human health and livelihoods, or, if wisely taken, can promote a healthier, fairer, and greener world.

WHO recently published a set of Prescriptions for a healthy, green recovery from COVID-19, of which the first prescription is to “Protect and preserve the source of human health: Nature”.

An open letter to the G20 leaders from over 40 million health professionals also urged for a healthy recovery from COVID-19 where nature is thriving. A healthy recovery, the letter states, needs to double down on pollution, climate change and deforestation, in order to prevent “unleashing new health threats upon vulnerable populations”.

Biodiversity & Infectious Diseases

COVID-19 is a reminder of the intimate and delicate relationship between people and planet. Biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation and other human-driven disturbances are increasingly linked to the occurrence, risk and spread of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases. In many instances, climate change acts as a threat multiplier.

A Question and Answer sheet, prepared under the WHO-CBD joint work programme on biodiversity and health, summarizes some of the interlinkages between biodiversity and infectious diseases.

Mainstreaming biodiversity for nutrition and health

We are at a critical juncture. More than one third of the world’s land surface and nearly 75% of freshwater resources are devoted to crop or livestock production, yet the global food system still fails to provide millions of people with healthy, safe, affordable and sustainable diets. Unhealthy diets have now become the single-most important driver of mortality globally, accounting for nearly 11 million premature adult deaths annually.

New WHO guidance on mainstreaming biodiversity for nutrition and health, published on the occasion of World Environment Day, aims to support governments in the necessary transition toward healthier, more sustainable diets, and this by integrating biodiversity in food-based interventions to support nutrition and health.

Biodiversity plays a crucial role in our food systems, including by sustaining healthy, diverse and sustainable diets and by strengthening the resilience of food systems, health systems and livelihood.

Supporting agrobiodiversity and adopting integrated ecosystem-based and One Health approaches provide valuable opportunities to enhance the sustainability of food production systems and are instrumental to the effective management of potential health risks, such as food safety and infectious diseases outbreaks.

We have an unprecedented opportunity to safeguard both biodiversity and food security, in order to support healthy and sustainable diets; the imperative to transform the global food system has never been greater; for nature and for people.

Read the WHO Report here.