The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have established a Joint Work Programme on Biodiversity and Health. Since 2012, WHO and CBD have collaborated with numerous partners to raise awareness of the intimate interconnections between healthy ecosystems and human health, and to support policy-makers, practitioners and the broader international community in addressing some of the most pressing environmental, health and development challenges of our time.
WHO and CBD further established the Interagency Liaison Group on Biodiversity and Health, with the aim to strengthen knowledge and cooperation on the interlinkages between biodiversity and human health.
NEW: Q&A on Biodiversity and Infectious Diseases
Infectious diseases cause over one billion human infections per year, with millions of deaths each year globally. Extensive health and financial burden is seen from both established and emerging infectious diseases. Infectious diseases also affect plants and animals, which may pose threats to agriculture and water supplies with additional impacts on human health.
This Question and Answers, prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat under their joint work programme on biodiversity and health, and launched of the occasion of the International Day for Biodiversity 2020, summarizes some of the interlinkages between biodiversity and infectious diseases.
WHO is continuously monitoring and responding to the COVID 19 outbreak. This Q&A will be updated as more is known about COVID-19, how it is affecting people worldwide, and the effectiveness of interventions against the disease
A PDF version of this document can also be downloaded here.
2nd WHO-CBD Interagency Liaison Group on Biodiversity and Health
4-6 May 2020
The Liaison Group, established in 2017, brings together international organizations such as FAO, OIE, CGIAR, UNEP, and UNFCCC, together with representatives across several WHO departments and regional offices and external experts, in order to strengthen international collaboration on the interlinkages between biodiversity and human health.
The second meeting of the group took place in 2020 in the lead up to CBD COP 15 and UNFCCC COP 26. The meeting was originally expected to take place in person at WHO HQ in Geneva. While these, and other milestone meetings have inevitably been postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for these actors to come together - from a safe distance - to discuss ways in which to align priorities and actions at the health and biodiversity nexus has never been more current or pressing.
The meeting focused on three themes:
- WHO Guidance on mainstreaming biodiversity for nutrition and health;
- Shaping and aligning the narrative on biodiversity and health in the context of COVID-19;
- Draft Global Plan of Action on Biodiversity and Health to be presented to the forthcoming scientific body of the CBD and adopted by countries at 15th Conference of the Parties in 2021.
For more information, please visit the CBD website.
State of Knowledge Review
Biodiversity loss is happening at unprecedented rates, negatively impacting human health worldwide, according to a State of Knowledge Review by the Convention on Biological Diversity and World Health Organization: Connecting Global Priorities: Biodiversity and Human Health. Launched to coincide with World Environment Day 2015, the report examines how biodiversity supports human and societal needs, including food and nutrition security, development of medicines and pharmaceuticals, clean air and freshwater, and others, which together underpin good health.
The most comprehensive review of its kind to date, the report brings together knowledge from over 100 experts working across several scientific disciplines, including public health, conservation, agriculture, epidemiology, development and others.
Health and Biodiversity at the World Health Assembly
Biodiversity and human health was discussed as a special issue at the Seventy-first meeting of the World Health Assembly held from 21 to 26 May 2018 in Geneva.
In line with a decision of the Executive Board, the WHO Director-General submitted a report on the actions taken on the interlinkages between human health and biodiversity bearing in mind the State of Knowledge Review. The World Health Assembly report sought guidance from Member States with a view to preparing WHO’s contribution to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from 17 to 29 November 2018. The WHO report on biodiversity and health by the WHO Director-General to the Seventy-first World Health Assembly is available here.
Bridging science and policy: Biodiversity and Health at the UN Biodiversity Conference
The State of Knowledge Review gave rise to a comprehensive decision on the interlinkages between biodiversity and health and its inclusion in the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and their follow-up targets, taken at the Thirteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 13), held in 2016 in Cancun, Mexico.
A new comprehensive decision on biodiversity and health was adopted at COP 14, held in 2018 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The decision recognizes the importance of ecosystem-based approaches for the delivery of multiple benefits to health and well-being, and invites Governments and other relevant stakeholders to make use of the Biodiversity inclusive One Health Guidance developed by CBD and WHO.
Interagency Liaison Group on Biodiversity and Health
The Interagency Liaison Group on Biodiversity and Health was established in 2017 by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and World Health Organization (WHO) pursuant to a Memorandum of Cooperation concluded between these organizations in July 2015.
The Group is co-Chaired by CBD and WHO, and counts among its members: FAO, UNEP, UNFCCC, UNISDR, UNU, UNSCN, CGIAR, IUCN and others. The aim of the Group is to enhance coherence and cooperation in their implementation, and to strengthen knowledge and awareness of the interlinkages between biodiversity and human health, with a view to maximizing health and biodiversity co-benefits, addressing trade-offs, and reducing the common drivers of ecosystem change, biodiversity loss and negative health outcomes.
The first Meeting of the Group was held on 4-5 May, 2017 at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The report of the first meeting of the Group is available here.
Learn More
- Factsheet on biodiversity and health
- Presentation on the CBD-WHO Joint Work Programme
- Biodiversity inclusive One Health Guidance
- Aichi Biodiversity Targets