ABSTRACT:
The loss of biodiversity intertwines with climate change and various types of pollution to bring about the planetary health crisis, threatening the health and survival of humans, animals and plants in multiple, compounding and cascading ways. Biodiversity, defined as the variety of life on Earth, is declining rapidly, driven primarily by habitat loss, poor land use, pollution, overexploitation and climate change. These five primary causes of biodiversity loss are interrelated, with climate change increasingly intensifying biodiversity loss, leading to reduced ecosystem resilience and further intensification of the crisis. Biodiversity loss is also linked with pandemics, nutritional deficiencies, associated increase in chronic disease and loss of medicinal plants. Current and future health care professionals must understand these interrelationships and learn to foster and advocate for the multidisciplinary wisdom and policies needed to mitigate further harm. This organized session, geared towards health care professionals, will identify the biodiversity hypothesis, review case examples of biodiversity loss and allow the audience to discuss associated impacts on human health. The session will also explore equity considerations such as nature deficiency and its relationship with the human microbiome. Co-benefits of nature will be discussed with special emphasis on a One Health approach. Nature-based solutions that improve biodiversity and health will be highlighted and the audience will have an opportunity to work through a real-life case that incorporates several drivers of biodiversity loss and One Health principles. Addressing this multifaceted crisis requires urgent integration of planetary health concepts into medical and continuing medical education to prepare current and future health professionals for the rising burden of diseases linked with ecological decline. This session provides the necessary information in an interactive way that will fundamentally shift how healthcare professionals perceive this issue, while providing them with a framework that they can share at their own institutions.