Climate change does impact on human health, people living in forests deal with much more immediate problems, like children dying of dysentery and malaria and other diseases. Photo by Trish Shanley
The World Health Organization (WHO) dedicated the focus of this year’s World Health Day, on April 14, to “Protecting Health from the adverse effects of Climate Change.”
Though one may not readily see a connection between climate change and health, the two are inextricably linked. Studies from around the world, including those by CIFOR’s Carol Colfer, demonstrate that climate and weather have a powerful impact on human life and health, especially the health of vulnerable, forest-dependent people.
However, according to CIFOR scientist Patricia Shanley, who has spent over 5 years studying the complex relationship between forests and health, “at present, people living in forests deal with much more immediate problems than climate change, like children dying of dysentery and malaria and other diseases caused by the indirect effects of forest degradation. Add to this the fact that many of their medicinal plants and other Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) are being destroyed through logging.”
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"At present, people living in forests deal with much more immediate problems than climate change, like children dying of dysentery and malaria and other diseases caused by the indirect effects of forest degradation."
Patricia Shanley
CIFOR |
Climate change is likely to exacerbate these problems by influencing the biodiversity assets and ecosystem services of tropical forests. This will lead to indirect impacts like a decrease in water supply and quality, which in turn will lead to an increase in water-related diseases, especially water-borne diseases following extreme rainfall.
Changes in temperature and rainfall will also alter the distribution of disease vectors carrying malaria, dengue, and diarrhoea particularly worrisome – as well as rodent and other pest populations.
In addition, climate change is likely to increase the frequency, persistence and magnitude of El Nino events, including forest fires, which can lead to significant health problems. According to WHO, more than 200 million people in Southeast Asia were affected by the 1997-98 forest fires in East Kalimantan, with cases of pneumonia and respiratory diseases increasing exponentially.
By and large, the likely impact of climate change on forests and human health needs far more attention and involvement from practitioners in both the health and forestry sectors globally.
In 2007 CIFOR organised a series of workshops in Brazil, Cameroon, Ethiopia and West Kalimantan, to discuss the links between forests and human health. The findings from these events, as well as other research findings, were presented at a series of recent meetings in Geneva, Stockholm and Washington in order to make donors and policy makers more aware of these important, but often neglected, links.
Story by Widya Prajanthi, CIFOR
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Human Health and Forests
A Global Overview of Issues Practice and Policy
Hundreds of millions of people live and work in forests across the world. One vital aspect of their lives, yet largely unexamined, is the challenge of protecting and enhancing the unique relationship between the health of forests and the health of people. This book, written for a broad audience, is the first comprehensive introduction to the issues surrounding the health of people living in and around forests, particularly in Asia, South America and Africa.
The book concludes with a synthesis designed for use by practitioners and policy makers to work with forest dwellers to improve their health and their ecosystems and also as a vital addition to the knowledge base of all professionals, academics and students working on forests, health and development worldwide.
Published by Earthscan, with CIFOR and People and Plants International, 2008. Carol J. Pierce Colfer is Principal Scientist in CIFOR’s Governance Programme. Web link http://www.earthscan.co.uk/?tabid=1487
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