How Our Health And Safety Depend On Biodiversity

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2013, Nadine Azzu, FAO  "The Youth Guide to Biodiversity" 1st Edition (Chapter 5) Youth and United Nations Global Alliance. Reproduced with permission.

Chapter 5. Conor Kretsch, COHAB Initiative Secretariat. Verbatim.

Biodiversity sustains our health in many ways. In addition to providing us with sources of fresh water and food, it provides important medicines and resources for medical research. Biodiversity also plays a role in the control of pests and infectious diseases, and by supporting healthy ecosystems it can help to protect us against the worst effects of natural disasters.

For around 80 percent of the world’s people, healthcare is based on traditional medicines using wild flora and fauna. Many modern medicines are also based on chemical compounds from wildlife. The important anticancer drug Taxol comes from the Pacific yew tree and some types of fungus. The antimalaria drug quinine comes from the cinchona tree, while the drug exanitide, which  helps to treat diabetes, was developed from the venom of the gila monster lizard.

Modern medicine also has much to learn from studying animals in the wild. For example, wild bears eat large amounts of fatty and sugar-rich foods before hibernating for several months. In humans, eating fatty foods and sugars and not exercising for prolonged periods can lead to diabetes, obesity, heart problems and bone weakness; however, bears can sleep for  100 days or more without suffering from any of these problems!

So scientists studying bears hope to learn new ways ofunderstanding and treating these diseases in people. Other species we are learning from include primates, crabs, sharks and whales. We still know very little about most of the biodiversity on Earth, butwe know that when a species disappears, anything we might have been able to learn from that species disappears too.  

Just as animals and plants have their own place and part to play in a healthy ecosystem, so too do organisms which can cause disease (e.g. certain viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites). When human activity damages an ecosystem in which these organisms live, we risk creating new disease outbreaks.

For example, the parasite that causes malaria is spread to people by the bite of some types of mosquito, which breed in pools of water. Changes to ecosystems – through deforestation, dam building or urbanisation – can provide new areas for mosquitoes to breed, and this can lead to an increase in malaria risk for people nearby. 

Many other diseases have been linked to human impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems, including HIV/AIDS, SARS , hantavirus and some types of avian influenza.

Biodiversity also helps improve human safety and security. It can protect communities against the impacts of disasters, by supporting ecosystems that provide shelter against floods and storms, prevent erosion or avalanches on hillsides, or help provide food security for people faced with drought or famine. So, conserving biodiversity is a way of supporting communities and protecting our health and that of our children.