Experts from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) agreed that it was possible to escape the pandemic era, but that this would require a fundamentally different shift in approach: from response to prevention.
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Covid-19 is at least the sixth global health pandemic since the 1918 influenza pandemic. Experts estimate that there are about 1.7 million other types of viruses in mammals and birds, while up to 850,000 could be able to infect humans.
“The cause of the covidu-19 pandemic or any other modern pandemic is no big secret,” said Peter Daszak, president of the Environmental Alliance and chairman of the IPBES seminar.
“Human activities that cause climate change and biodiversity loss also pose a pandemic risk through their impact on our environment. Changes in land use, the expansion and intensification of agriculture, and unsustainable trade, production and consumption disrupt nature and increase contact between wildlife, livestock, pathogens and humans. And that is the way to pandemics, “Daszak pointed out.
Where is the solution?
Pandemic risk can be significantly reduced by reducing human activities that cause biodiversity loss, greater conservation of protected areas and measures that reduce the unsustainable use of areas with high biodiversity. This will reduce contact between wildlife and help prevent new diseases from spilling over, the report said.
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“Scientific evidence shows us that the report is ultimately positive,” Daszak said. “We have an increasing ability to prevent pandemics – but the way we deal with them now largely ignores that ability. Our approach is virtually stagnant: we still rely on attempts to control and control disease as it arises, most often through vaccines and therapies. We can escape the pandemic era, but that requires a much greater focus on prevention instead of response, “he added.
“The fact that human activity has been able to change our natural environment so fundamentally is not necessarily negative. It also provides convincing evidence of our ability to manage the change needed to reduce the risk of future pandemics – while benefiting nature conservation and mitigating climate change, ”says IPBES.
The report states that relying on reactions after illness is a “slow and uncertain path”, which is also expensive and damaging the economy and the quality of people’s lives.
The report also offers a number of policy options to help reduce and address the risk of a pandemic. These include, for example, reducing trade in wild animals, better coordinating international pandemic plans or achieving greater food security and reducing wildlife hunting.
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