One Health and conservation

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Zimbabwe

A One Health approach to conservation

The relationship between environmental, animal, and human health is complex. Developing an effective, integrated approach to addressing the underlying challenges requires a wide range of strategies and interventions. To achieve healthy ecosystems, people, and animals, WWF has developed guidance on six strategic areas:

1 Landscape immunity:

Ensuring “landscape immunity” means safeguarding sustainable and healthy ecosystems in which animal–pathogen–human interactions are in balance and neither wildlife nor humans are overly stressed or forced to aggregate or migrate because of land use-induced changes. Land-use change that deforests, converts, and fragments natural habitat can force wildlife into closer proximity to humans and livestock. Stressed wildlife are also more vulnerable to infection, and more likely to either “shed” and introduce pathogens to people or livestock or, in turn, be susceptible to catching pathogens from people or livestock. Natural predators and scavengers can be sensitive to these changes and are more likely to be replaced in an unhealthy landscape by species known to host pathogens, like rodents.

Deforestation, conversion, and fragmentation are widely linked to infectious disease dynamics, and many land-use changes play a role, including infrastructure development (such as roads, rail, dams, and mining), coastal zone degradation, wetland modification, and urbanization

2 Wildlife trade:

Wildlife trade intensifies human-animal contact through various activities along trade routes, such as during farming, hunting, butchering, storage, and transport, as well as at live wildlife exhibits, markets, and restaurants. These direct interactions increase the risk of spillover of zoonotic diseases. Wildlife trade involves an estimated one-quarter of all mammal species, including high percentages of bats, rodents, and primates, which are known to be high-risk species that can host a high diversity of zoonotic pathogens. Illegal wildlife trade also circumvents all regulatory controls, veterinary checks, and appropriate care and facilities for live wildlife, increasing the potential for zoonotic disease transmission.

3 Preventive medicine:

Preventive medicine is the practice of promoting veterinary and medical activities that support the health and well-being of an individual or population to prevent disease spread, disability, and death. This includes vaccination, parasite prevention and control, and health screening, as well as strategies for appropriate management of existing diseases and related complications.

Preventive medicine is crucial for people and livestock. While it is used less commonly for wildlife, it plays a critical role in certain scenarios, such as vaccinations of endangered black-footed ferrets against sylvatic plague.

4 Pathogen early warning and monitoring:

Zoonotic pathogens can emerge at any time, threatening every society’s health, well-being, and economy. A One Health intelligence framework that collects and shares epidemiological data and information across a broad range of sectors can aid early detection of pathogens and enable early warning of emerging threats. This can allow for early intervention to respond to outbreaks, ultimately reducing the impact of disease.

Monitoring can improve our understanding of existing host and pathogen dynamics, drivers of disease, and disease transmission in animals and humans in their shared environment. Monitoring the origin, spread, and patterns of new pathogens in geographical regions and interfaces can form part of a surveillance strategy that can potentially anticipate and prevent pandemic

5 Sustainable livestock management:

Livestock plays a major role in global food systems and contributes to poverty reduction, food security, and agricultural development. Livestock farming is also often the predominant form of land use within natural grasslands and savannahs. These systems are usually where the One Health triad of people, the environment, and animals are most intertwined, with herders, livestock, and wildlife all living together and sharing resources from the same ecosystem.

Unsustainable livestock management can negatively impact wildlife while increasing the potential for transmission of diseases among humans, wildlife, and domestic animals.

Effective One Health strategies for sustainable livestock management, including herd health management, sustainable rangeland management, and managing the interface between livestock and wildlife have the potential to improve human health, increase livestock productivity, and deliver equitable benefits to people, particularly in low and middle-income countries.

6 Behavior change:

To achieve the changes needed to ensure healthy people, animals, and ecosystems, behavior change and education will be essential tools for a coordinated and cross-sectoral One Health approach. Behavior change efforts that could be crucial to One Health initiatives encompass a wide variety of tactics, from reducing demand for wildlife products with a high-risk potential for disease to behaviors around hygiene, food safety, and waste management practices.

A healthy planet is one where we stop the key drivers of disease spillover, such as deforestation and high-risk wildlife trade; keep forests protected and intact; and change how we interact with wild and domestic animals. WWF is working to integrate conservation into the One Health paradigm to sustain nature and keep communities healthy and resilient for the long term. A One Health approach creates the opportunity to bring in expertise across natural and social sciences, from across Western science and traditional, Indigenous ways of knowing. This holistic approach will provide a road map for the future, helping address the complex issues impacting the health of people and the planet.