316
• Alignment of indicators, joint metrics and reporting for health, climate change
adaptation and biodiversity is needed to work effectively across different
sectors.
• Joint collaborative working and governance is needed to put policy agendas into
practice and foster implementation across sectors.
14.1 Introduction
Biodiversity forms the foundation of life on Earth and human health, as it underpins
the functioning of ecosystems and associated ecosystem services (Cardinale et al.
2012). We depend on the contributions from nature to people (Díaz et al. 2018) for
providing our food and fresh water, regulating climate, preventing floods and disease, as well as providing recreational benefits and aesthetic and spiritual enrichment (see also Irvine et al. Chap. 10, this volume). Biodiversity contributes to both
traditional and modern medicines and supports local livelihoods and economic
development (Romanelli et al. 2015). Because of these fundamental linkages
between biodiversity and human health, it is surprising that this important crosscutting issue made it –only in the last few years – prominently onto the agendas of
important international conventions and organisations such as the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD), the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the World
Health Organization (WHO). Given the fact that climate change increasingly has
direct and indirect effects on both biodiversity and human health, it is even more
important to stress the links between the topics in order to foster nature-based solutions for promoting health and adapting to climate change.
This chapter highlights some key policy processes to tackle the relationships
between (1) biodiversity and climate change, (2) biodiversity and health, (3) climate
change and health and (4) the biodiversity-climate-health nexus on the international
level. The field is developing fast, and this chapter represents the status as of August
2018. The connection between biodiversity and health – sometimes also in relation
to climate change – is also emerging in many practical regional and local initiatives,
coming from both a nature conservation angle and a medical angle. (For an overview about European Nature and Health network initiatives see Keune et al. Chap.
15, this volume.)
14.2 Biodiversity and Climate Change
Much work has been done on the direct effects of climate change on biodiversity
(e.g. changes in phenology and in species’ distribution, composition and interactions; see Bellard et al. 2012; Parmesan 2006; Thomas et al. 2004) as well as indirect effects of these changes on human health (Pecl et al. 2017). But vice versa,
biodiversity also affects the climate system and can also ameliorate climate change
H. Korn et al.
• Alignment of indicators, joint metrics and reporting for health, climate change
adaptation and biodiversity is needed to work effectively across different
sectors.
• Joint collaborative working and governance is needed to put policy agendas into
practice and foster implementation across sectors.
14.1 Introduction
Biodiversity forms the foundation of life on Earth and human health, as it underpins
the functioning of ecosystems and associated ecosystem services (Cardinale et al.
2012). We depend on the contributions from nature to people (Díaz et al. 2018) for
providing our food and fresh water, regulating climate, preventing floods and disease, as well as providing recreational benefits and aesthetic and spiritual enrichment (see also Irvine et al. Chap. 10, this volume). Biodiversity contributes to both
traditional and modern medicines and supports local livelihoods and economic
development (Romanelli et al. 2015). Because of these fundamental linkages
between biodiversity and human health, it is surprising that this important crosscutting issue made it –only in the last few years – prominently onto the agendas of
important international conventions and organisations such as the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD), the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the World
Health Organization (WHO). Given the fact that climate change increasingly has
direct and indirect effects on both biodiversity and human health, it is even more
important to stress the links between the topics in order to foster nature-based solutions for promoting health and adapting to climate change.
This chapter highlights some key policy processes to tackle the relationships
between (1) biodiversity and climate change, (2) biodiversity and health, (3) climate
change and health and (4) the biodiversity-climate-health nexus on the international
level. The field is developing fast, and this chapter represents the status as of August
2018. The connection between biodiversity and health – sometimes also in relation
to climate change – is also emerging in many practical regional and local initiatives,
coming from both a nature conservation angle and a medical angle. (For an overview about European Nature and Health network initiatives see Keune et al. Chap.
15, this volume.)
14.2 Biodiversity and Climate Change
Much work has been done on the direct effects of climate change on biodiversity
(e.g. changes in phenology and in species’ distribution, composition and interactions; see Bellard et al. 2012; Parmesan 2006; Thomas et al. 2004) as well as indirect effects of these changes on human health (Pecl et al. 2017). But vice versa,
biodiversity also affects the climate system and can also ameliorate climate change
H. Korn et al.