As nations continue to reel from the devastating impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, various stakeholders in Southeast Asia are compelled to look deeper into the issue of wildlife conservation and zoonotic diseases.
The concept of “One Health” as a holistic approach to understanding risks to human, animal and ecosystem health is fast becoming the buzzword as a post-Covid-19 recovery strategy in the region.
Emerging infectious diseases
Kung Phoak, deputy secretary general for Asean Socio-Cultural Community, underscored the substantial impacts of emerging infectious diseases that are zoonotic (an infectious disease that has jumped from animals to humans) to human health, agricultural production, tourism and economies.
At a recent webinar dubbed, “Wildlife Conservation and Zoonotic Diseases: Halting Species Loss and Tackling Public Health in the Asean,” Phoak said 75 percent of known emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, all of which have had substantial impacts on human health, agricultural production, tourism and economies.
Organized by the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), in collaboration with Vietnam through the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Asean Secretariat, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the webinar aimed to explore the issue of wildlife conservation and zoonotic diseases from the “One Health” perspective.
Illegal wildlife trade
Describing the illegal wildlife trade as a ubiquitous problem, Phoak said it contributes to the continuously harrowing decrease in populations of wild flora and fauna and emerging infectious pathogens in the region.
“In the long run, such disruptions in ecological systems could provide opportunities for the emergence of zoonotic diseases,” he warned.
He said the links between wildlife and human health are particularly complex, and should be addressed with coordinated actions.
One Health
In the international community, “One Health” has been known as a collaborative and a transdisciplinary approach that recognizes connections between health and people, and animal and the environment, Phoak said.
Such approach, he added, offers a holistic pathway for biodiversity mainstreaming in Asean’s post-2020 biodiversity framework and broader sustainable development agenda.
To this end, Phoak said the Covid-19 pandemic and its recovery should be seen as an opportunity to explore ways and leverage on Asean’s existing partnership and initiatives toward a more collective and coordinated response to mitigate its multi-faceted impact.
A wake-up call
According to Phoak, the Covid 19 pandemic has been a wake-up call for the modern society.
“We need to live in harmony with the broader ecosystem as our lifeline reservoir. We need to look after the environment and biodiversity, if not for anything then for humanity’s long-term survival,” he said.
Hence, Asean’s Covid-19 strategy should look at strategies to mainstream sustainability considerations into all dimensions of work, from the environment, health, agriculture, disaster management and to financing.
Devastating impact
ACB Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim, in her keynote address during the webinar, said most parts of the world, including the Asean region, have experienced the impacts of the global pandemic.
Citing the World Health Organization report as of November 15, she said almost 4 million new cases and 60,000 new deaths led to the world total of 53.7 million confirmed cases and 1.3 million deaths.
“The Asean BioDiaspora Virtual Center reported that there are 1,055,110 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the region with a total of 25,055 deaths as of November 16,” she added.
Biodiversity links
Lim said the webinar hopes to broaden the discussion on the links among wildlife and their natural habitats, domestic animals and human activities, and dependence on biodiversity and healthy ecosystems which have been the subject of conversations by Asean on the Covid-19 pandemic and its links to biodiversity.
“While the wildlife species, such as bats and pangolins, have been identified as natural reservoirs for viruses, there needs to be an intermediate host for the virus to be transmitted to humans,” Lim, a licensed veterinarian and an expert in zoonotic disease, said.
Viruses, she said, usually do not simply jump from the wildlife species to humans.
However, because of the increasing human-wildlife interactions, there are currently cases of direct transmission, she said, citing the latest Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services report on pandemics.
Increasing risks
The increasing anthropogenic changes, or alterations as a result of human action or presence, such as land-use change, agricultural expansion and intensification, wildlife trade and consumption, and other drivers, including climate change, substantially increase the risk of a pandemic occurrence, she pointed out.
“As wildlife species are displaced from their natural ecosystems, the instances of interaction with humans in settlements increase. When this happens, natural host-pathogen dynamics are disrupted, increasing opportunities for direct contact between the wildlife species [which are natural virus reservoirs] and humans,” Lim explained.
Anthropogenic drivers of zoonotic diseases are now occurring in the same places, amplifying their impact because of the increasing demand for animal protein, she said.
In Southeast Asia, since the 1960s, the share of the region’s daily food supply of proteins from animal products doubled to 21 percent, she noted.
“The increasing demand for animal-source foods stimulates the intensification and industrialization of animal production, which then result in the proliferation of genetically similar animals,” she said.
Meanwhile, the unsustainable agricultural intensification and monoculture approach to livestock-raising narrows down genetic diversity, weakens disease resistance, and makes the population more vulnerable to viral infections, she said.
Lim cited as an example the factory farming of pigs that was said to have promoted transmission of swine flu due to closed confines of the animals.
“The IPBES report likewise cited that more than 25 percent of all—and more than 50 percent of zoonotic—infectious diseases have been linked to agricultural-intensification measures, such as dams, irrigation projects and factory farms since 1940,” she said.
Exploitation of wildlife
Another problem is the exploitation or overexploitation of wildlife, Lim said.
In the region, illegal wildlife trade has become a lucrative business fetching an estimate of $20 billion annually.
The increased exploitation of wildlife significantly contributes to the risk of zoonotic disease emergence, she said.
“Hunting of wild animals for bushmeat, recreation, consumption, and social norms, as well as presumptions that wild meat is fresh, natural, traditional and safe, often fuel the illegal wildlife trade system,” she explained.
“Furthermore, live animal trading for recreation, research, medical, medicinal, commercial, and decorative purposes largely compound to this,” Lim added.
Food supply chains, climate change
According to Lim, longer food supply chains not only contribute to carbon footprints, but also increase opportunities for wider disease transmission.
“It is not a coincidence that more diseases have been spreading as the global temperature rises, as zoonotic diseases thrive and survive in warmer and wetter climates,” she added.
According to Lim, a former official of the DENR, the changing environmental conditions may affect the population of host animals, causing ecological imbalance and enabling virus transmissions.
“Clearly, these human-driven activities lead to biodiversity loss and faster spread of diseases. The decline of species can trigger the spillover of viruses that have long been dormant or inactive, leading to their transmission to domestic animals and humans,” she explained.
Era of pandemics
She reiterated that Covid-19 may not be the last pandemic, citing IPBES’s description or reference to the current period as the “era of pandemics.”
“There are around 1.7 million unidentified viruses believed to still exist in mammals and water birds that can infect people. The risk of pandemics is increasing rapid, with more than five new diseases emerging in people every year, any one of which has the potential to spread and become pandemic,” she said.
Curbing the risks
According to Lim, curbing the risk of future pandemics would entail the reduction or a complete halt of destructive practices, and the promotion of more nature- and biodiversity-friendly mindset and lifestyle.
She said the most urgent measure that people in Asean must undertake is the conservation of protected areas that serve as habitats of wildlife animals.
This means halting the overexploitation and the unsustainable use of resources in high biodiversity regions to reduce the wildlife-livestock-human contact interface and help prevent the spillover of novel pathogens.
Responsible consumption and reducing consumption of meat from livestock production, she said, can also help to significantly reduce the risk of pandemics.
ACB’s role
As a regional hub for biodiversity conservation, the ACB has a significant role in the ongoing discussions in the region on the development of One Health approach.
One of the ACB’s main thrusts now is mainstreaming biodiversity considerations across development sectors, and along with its mandate of fostering regional cooperation among the 10 Asean member states.
Lim said the ACB can support in the adoption of the One Health approach in sub-national, national and regional planning following the Conference on Biological Diversity guidance and the joint work program between CBD and World Health Organization on Health and Biodiversity.
Lim said the webinar aims to bring together the sectors of biodiversity conservation, wildlife trade and enforcement, forestry, agriculture and animal health, human health and infectious diseases in Asean, and tackle an integrated response to the Covid-19 challenge through the lens of One Health approach.
Finally, sharing an editorial cartoon that illustrates the various disasters the world is facing, Lim said the world is only bracing for a fraction of health and ecological threats.
“Focusing on biodiversity—including embedding its considerations across sectors and across pillars—should be our main priority,” she said.
Image credits: ACB