Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III expressed alarm over the decreasing nutritional contents of food even with the increasing production of staple crops, such as rice, corn and wheat.
The increased global demand for food reflected in intensified and enhanced food production, and the continuous use of fertilizers and pesticides, harm biodiversity, he said.
Duque added that the burden of malnutrition remains a global health challenge and the single largest contributor to the global burden of disease.
Addressing malnutrition, he said that by ensuring food security and dietary adequacy, which is further enhanced by taking into account biodiversity considerations, is something that the Department of Health under his watch gives importance to in its various programs and initiatives.
Duque made these remarks as he discussed how biodiversity directly affects human health during the kick off of the Asean workshop on linking biodiversity and human health at a hotel in Alabang from November 5 to 7.
“Threats to biodiversity are tantamount to threats to human health,” he warned.
It was organized by Asean Centre for Biodiversity, headed by Theresa Mundita S. Lim, a biodiversity expert, in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat, and the United Nations University’s Institute for International Global Health and hosted by the Departments of Health and Environment and Natural Resources. The workshop was also supported by the European Union, through the Biodiversity Conservation and Management or Protected Areas in Asean Project.
The event convened experts from the Ministries of Environment and Health in the Asean countries to discuss national experiences and best practices on integrating biodiversity and human health.
During his speech, Duque said besides food security, biodiversity is directly linked to human health through pharmaceutical development and traditional medicine, and the emergence and spread of infectious diseases in animals, plants and humans.
He said biodiversity has provided animal-based and plant-based sources for the production of breakthrough pharmaceutical products like antibiotics which have healed humans, animals and even plants for many centuries.
As much as 70 percent of citizens in developing countries use and passed on traditional medicines to generations.
He explained that overharvesting, habitat alteration and climate change are among the major drivers of declines in commercially important wild-plant resources used for pharmaceutical development and traditional medicine.
With the emergence of antimicrobial resistance—a phenomenon, which threatens the very core of disease control interventions—there is a stronger need to conserve biodiversity to increase the natural sources for food and medicines.
Meanwhile, Duque said social and environmental changes are directly linked to urbanization, mobility and deforestation, which has created new opportunities for infection, while the rapid adaptation of microorganisms has facilitated the return of old communicable diseases and emergence of new ones.
The situation, he added, is worsened by globalization and regional integration.
Migration has resulted in a smaller world with seamless porous borders rendering fewer barriers against the spread of infectious disease.
Healthy and stable natural ecosystems can provide the backstop to the spread of zoonotic infectious disease.
Duque cited the United Nations for coming up with Sustainable Development Goals which emphasize the balance of three goals—economic, social and environmental.
He also praised the WHO for its report on health, environment and climate change, which identified the ways forward to strengthen the collaboration between stakeholders working on biodiversity and in health.
The WHO report highlighted the need for further scientific research on the links between biodiversity and health and the critical roles of the WHO, the CBD Secretariat and Asean nations.
Duque challenged participants of the Asean workshop to lay the foundation for joint work programs that would mainstream health and biodiversity linkages in national strategies, policies and programs, and foster stronger regional collaboration.
Lim said the workshop was part of a series of Asean advocacy on mainstreaming biodiversity—the integration of conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in development sectors, such as health, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, science, technology and education.
The advocacy also highlights the importance of biodiversity in sustainable development, poverty reduction, climate-change adaptation and mitigation, business, trade and international cooperation.
Image credits: ACB photo