IPBES warns about COVID outlets
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) presented a paper analyzing the link between the COVID 19 pandemic and human actions, while proposing some criteria to ensure that the solutions to the health and economic crisis do not leave us in a vicious circle, vulnerable to new epidemics. “Rampant deforestation, uncontrolled expansion of agriculture, intensive farming, mining and infrastructure development, as well as the exploitation of wildlife species have created a “perfect storm” for the spread of diseases from wildlife to people” states the article prepared by Josef Settele, Sandra Diaz, Eduardo Brondizio and Peter Daszak.
IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body established by States to strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being and sustainable development.
In the study, available here(https://ipbes.net/covid19stimulus), the specialists posit that “Future pandemics are likely to occur more frequently, spread more rapidly, have a greater economic impact, and kill more people if we are not very careful about the potential impacts of the choices we make today,” and raise three considerations “for the multi-billion dollar recovery and economic stimulus plans already being implemented.”
First, strengthen and enforce environmental regulations, and only deploy stimulus packages that offer incentives for more sustainable and nature-positive activities. Second, adopt a ‘One Health’ approach at all levels of decision-making, from the global to the most local, recognizing the complex interconnections between the health of people, animals, plants and our shared environment. Third, we need to fund and resource health systems and appropriately incentivize behavior change at the front line of pandemic risk.
IPBES highlights the relevance of “transformational change”, as already highlighted in last year’s IPBES report (which found that one million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction in the coming decades). We can build back better and emerge from the current crisis stronger and more resilient than ever, but doing so means choosing policies and actions that protect nature, so that nature can help protect us.