Courtesy : Bachelor of Science Forestry (Botany, Zoology, forestry)
General overview
Further information: Planetary health
According to the World Economic Forum, 31% of emerging diseases are linked to deforestation.
According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 75% of emerging diseases in humans came from animals. The rising number of outbreaks is probably linked to habitat and biodiversity loss. In response, scientists created a new discipline, planetary health, which posits that the health of the ecosystems and the health of humans are linked. In 2015, the Rockefeller Foundation and The Lancet launched the concept as the Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on Planetary Health. # ISO certification in India
Since the 1980s, every decade has seen the number of new diseases in humans increase more than threefold. According to a major study by American and Australian scientists, degradation of ecosystems increases the risk of new outbreaks. The diseases that passed to humans in this way in the latest decades include HIV, Ebola, Avian flu, Swine Flu, and likely COVID-19.# ISO certification in India
In 2016, the United Nations Environment Programme published the UNEP Frontiers 2016 Report. In this report, the second chapter was dedicated to zoonotic diseases, that is diseases that pass from animals to humans. This chapter stated that deforestation, climate change, and livestock agriculture are among the main causes that increase the risk of such diseases. It mentioned that every four months, a new disease is discovered in humans. It is said that outbreaks that already happened (as of 2016) led to loss of lives and financial losses of billions dollars and if future diseases become pandemics it will cost trillions of dollars.# ISO certification in India
The report presents the causes of the emerging diseases, a large part of them environmental:
| Cause | Part of emerging diseases caused by it (%) |
|---|---|
| Land-use change | 31% |
| Agricultural industry changes | 15% |
| International travel and commerce | 13% |
| Medical industry changes | 11% |
| War and Famine | 7% |
| Climate and Weather | 6% |
| Human demography and behavior | 4% |
| Breakdown of public health | 3% |
| Bushmeat | 3% |
| Food industry change | 2% |
| Other | 4%[133] |
On page 23 of the report are presented some of the latest emerging diseases and the definite environmental cause of them:
| Disease | Environmental cause |
|---|---|
| Rabies | Forest activities in South America |
| Bat associated viruses | Deforestation and Agricultural expansion |
| Lyme disease | Forest fragmentation in North America |
| Nipah virus infection | Pig farming and intensification of fruit production in Malaysia |
| Japanese encephalitis virus | Irrigated rice production and pig farming in Southeast Asia |
| Ebola virus disease | Forest losses |
| Avian influenza | Intensive Poultry farming |
| SARS virus | contact with civet cats either in the wild or in live animal markets |
HIV/AIDS
Further information: AIDS
AIDS is probably linked to deforestation.The virus firstly circulated among monkeys and apes and when the humans came and destroyed the forest and most of the primates, the virus needed a new host to survive and jumped to humans. The virus, which killed more than 25 million people, is believed to have come from the consumption of bush meat, namely that of primates, and most likely chimpanzees in the Congo.# ISO certification in India
