One Health
The intersection of animals, humans, and the environment is particularly crucial, given that approximately 60% of all emerging human infectious diseases have a zoonotic origin—meaning they originated in animals and were transmitted to humans. Nearly three-quarters of recent zoonotic infectious disease events were caused by pathogens originating in wildlife (Jones et al., 2008). Growing evidence on emerging infectious diseases highlights changes in land use, including deforestation and forest fragmentation, unsustainable use of wildlife resources, as well as urbanization and unsustainable agricultural intensification, as significant contributors to the rise in infectious diseases such as malaria, Ebola, and many others.
FAO's Involvement
FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022-2031 recognizes One Health as a cross-cutting concept to be integrated across the four Betters, particularly in its One Health Programme Priority Area under better production. FAO supports a One Health approach, encouraging collaboration among specialists from various sectors, including forestry and wildlife, to address health threats to animals, humans, plants, and the environment. In addressing the intricate challenges at the human-wildlife-ecosystem interface, FAO’s Forestry Division advocates for the following actions:
- Support national governments to strengthen laws and regulations relating to hunting, wildlife management, trade and consumption, including food safety, veterinary public health and human public health considerations.
- Strengthen the capacities of government and other key stakeholders through the development and promotion of practical tools and approaches to assess and prevent the risks of biological threats to forests and zoonotic diseases related to wildlife value chains from the forest to the fork.
- Develop knowledge products to address interlinked forestry-wildlife-disease emergence as well as national forest biosecurity matters and phytosanitary standards within the One Health approach.
Relevant resources
Highlights
How natural resource management sectors can contribute to reducing emerging infectious diseases: the example of forest ecosystems
2022
This policy brief is a result of a collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and EcoHealth Alliance. The...