6th Science Policy Forum for Biodiversity COP 16 Cali S10

Description of the session

The triple planetary crisis understood as the combination of effects of biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution as widespread phenomena, leads the planet to exceed its limits of adaptability and resilience, constituting one of the greatest challenges for human long-term survival (Rockström et al. 2009). It is important to confront these crises from a broad perspective, which allows addressing this phenomenon with a multidisciplinary approach within the framework of the “One Health” focus, integrating the health of ecosystems, the health of the biodiversity inhabiting these ecosystems, and the human’s health (Destoumieux-Garzón et al. 2018). Biodiversity, defined as the variability among living organisms at any organizational scale, and the ecological complexes of which they are part (CBD 2010), constitutes the principal food, water, and medicine source, as well as the source of environmental services regulating climate, floods, and diseases (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005; Chivian and Bernstein 2008). Thus, under the One Health approach, biodiversity and its complex environmental relations can be considered the foundation for human health (Romanelli et al. 2014). It is key to understand the relevance of Biological Diversity participation in risk management within the One Health approach. The relationship between Biodiversity and Health is transversal to all multilateral international agreements, being prioritized in the Kumming-Montreal discussions (2022), and being part of the recommendations issued by the meeting of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice, SBSTTA26: It is needed more effective and integrated policy coordination on biodiversity and health, including dialogue, and collaboration across all governments and sectors, involving international cooperation to strengthen the environmental dimension of One Health, also strengthening capacity for public health surveillance and promoting equitable responses, in line with national circumstances and priorities (SBSTTA26 2024).