Nature & Biodiversity Play a Vital Role in Protecting Our Health

Urbanisation, land use, global trade and industrialisation have led to profound and negative impacts on nature, biodiversity and ecosystems across the world. WHO Europe has published its first report on nature, biodiversity and health together with the WHO Collaborating Centre on Natural Environments and Health at the University of Exeter.

In providing an overview of the impacts of the natural environment on human health, the report covers such diverse topics as the health relevance of freshwater systems; air quality; coasts, seas and oceans; soil, agriculture, nutrition and food security, infectious diseases emerging from human-wildlife interaction, microbial diversity, medicine and health care and green and blue spaces. It presents the ways nature and ecosystems can support and protect health and well-being and describes how nature degradation and loss of biodiversity can threaten human health.

These findings can be summarised in three key messages:

1. Nature provides the basic conditions for human health.
2. The environment protects human health.
3. Pressure on natural environments threatens human health.

Click here to read more.

Posted on 10th June 2021