Human damage to biodiversity is leading us into a pandemic era. The virus that causes COVID-19, for example, is linked to similar viruses in bats, which may have been passed to humans via pangolins or another species. A new report now shows we must urgently transform our relationship with the environment if we want to stop this onslaught
Katie Woolaston
Human damage to biodiversity is leading us into apandemic era. The virus that causes COVID-19, for example, is linked to similarviruses in bats, which may have been passed to humans via pangolins or anotherspecies.
Environmental destruction such as land clearing,deforestation, climate change, intense agriculture and the wildlife trade isputting humans into closer contact with wildlife. Animals carry microbes thatcan be transferred to people during these encounters.
A major report released just a few days ago says up to850,000 undiscovered viruses which could be transferred to humans are thoughtto exist in mammal and avian hosts.
The report, by The United Nations’ IntergovernmentalScience-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), says toavoid future pandemics, humans must urgently transform our relationship withthe environment.
Humans costs are mounting
The report is the result of a week-long virtual workshopin July this year, attended by leading experts. It says a review of scientificevidence shows: …pandemics are becoming more frequent, driven by a continuedrise in the underlying emerging disease events that spark them. Withoutpreventative strategies, pandemics will emerge more often, spread more rapidly,kill more people, and affect the global economy with more devastating impactthan ever before.
The report says, on average, five new diseases aretransferred from animals to humans every year – all with pandemic potential. Inthe past century, these have included: the Ebola virus (from fruit bats), AIDS(from chimpazees), Lyme disease (from ticks), the Hendra virus (which firsterupted at a Brisbane racing stable in 1994).
The report says an estimated 1.7 million currentlyundiscovered viruses are thought to exist in mammal and avian hosts. Of these,540,000-850,000 could infect humans.
But rather than prioritising the prevention of pandemicoutbreaks, governments around the world primarily focus on responding – throughearly detection, containment and hope for rapid development of vaccines andmedicines.
As the report states, COVID-19 demonstrates: …this is aslow and uncertain path, and as the global population waits for vaccines tobecome available, the human costs are mounting, in lives lost, sicknessendured, economic collapse, and lost livelihoods.
This approach can also damage biodiversity – for example,leading to large culls of identified carrier-species. Tens of thousands of wildanimals were culled in China after the SARS outbreak and bats continue to bepersecuted after the onset of COVID-19.
The report says women and Indigenous communities areparticularly disadvantaged by pandemics. Women represent more then 70% ofsocial and health-care workers globally, and past pandemics havedisproportionately harmed indigenous people, often due to geographicalisolation.
It says pandemics and other emerging zoonoses (diseasesthat have jumped from animals to humans) likely cause more than US$1 trillionin economic damages annually. As of July 2020, the cost of COVID-19 wasestimated at US $8-16 trillion globally. The costs of preventing the next pandemicare likely to be 100 times less than that.
As this new report demonstrates, we know the origins ofpandemics, and this gives us the power to prevent them.
WHAT CAN WE DO: A way forward
The IPBES report identifies potential ways forward. Theseinclude:
• Increased intergovernmental cooperation, such as acouncil on pandemic prevention, that could lead to a binding internationalagreement on targets for pandemic prevention measures
• Global implementation of OneHealth policies – policieson human health, animal health and the environment which are integrated, ratherthan “siloed” and considered in isolation
• Reduction in land-use change, by expanding protectedareas, restoring habitat and implementing financial disincentives such as taxeson meat consumption
• Policies to reduce wildlife trade and the risksassociated with it, such as increasing sanitation and safety in wild animalmarkets, increased biosecurity measures and enhanced enforcement around illegaltrade.
SOCIAL CHANGE
Societal and individual behaviour change will also beneeded. Exponential growth in consumption, often driven by developed countries,has led to the repeated emergence of diseases from less-developed countrieswhere the commodities are produced.
So how do we bring about social change that can reduceconsumption? Measures proposed in the report include:
education policies
labelling high pandemic-risk consumption patterns, suchas captive wildlife for sale as pets as either “wild-caught” or “captive-bred”with information on the country where it was bred or captured
providing incentives for sustainable behaviour
increasing food security to reduce the need for wildlifeconsumption.
