A recent seminar in Belem, Brazil, organized by CIFOR and the Government of Sweden, has brought the important role forests play in community health to the attention of senior policy makers and forest stakeholders.
Forests are a vital source of food and medicines for many people around the world. They also provide important environmental services, such as filtering drinking water, that contribute to good health.
But forests also carry microbes, vectors and hosts that can harm people’s physical condition. Forests are also often linked to a community’s cultural and spiritual values. Damage to the forest or loss of ownership can impact badly on the well-being of the people living in these communities.
CIFOR has been at the forefront in this still emerging discipline that researches the links between people’s health and forests. In 2006 CIFOR published Forests and human health: assessing the evidence (Colfer CJP, Sheil D, Kishi M), a review of scientific literature related to human health and forests. Since its publication the relationship between forests and health has generated considerable interest, as evidenced at the Belem seminar, August 13-14, 2007.
The Forest and Health Seminar addressed a number of key issues, including forest vectors and tropical disease, the public politics of forests and health, and the impact of environmental degradation on human well being in Amazonia.
One of the key speakers and organizers of the event, CIFOR’s Patricia Shanley says the seminar attracted “high level representation from the national and state forestry and health sectors (including) policy makers, as well as researchers from forestry, botany, agronomy, and nutritionists, phytotherapists, community health workers” and representatives from civil society groups.
According to Shanley, the presentations at seminar generated considerable interest and debate, with participants emphasizing the need for more collaboration between people and agencies, both public and private, working in the various areas related to health and forests.
“The speakers were excellent, generating lively discussion, and emphasizing the urgent need for communication and collaboration between the sectors,” Shanley said.
The participants expressed their sincere appreciation to CIFOR and the Swedish Government agency, SwedBio*, for making the seminar possible, with many saying it was the first of its kind in Brazil. A representative from the National Forest Service was so enthusiastic that she urged the group to form an Association to ensure future collaboration and gain greater visibility both in and outside Brazil. A potential follow-up meeting is scheduled in January for Brasilia and/or Natal.
* SwedBio was established by Government of Sweden to encourage strategic approaches in addressing biodiversity for local livelihoods as part of its overseas development assistance programme. www.swedbio.com