The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is a United Nations (UN) platform. From July 27-31, 2020, IPBES held an online workshop on biodiversity and pandemics.
In addition to 22 international experts, speakers from various other UN agencies participated in the workshop. They discussed the following topics during the event:
- The emergence of pandemics from microbial diversity in nature.
- The role of land use change and climate change in the emergence of pandemics.
- The role of wildlife trade in the emergence of pandemics
- Lessons from nature for better control of pandemics
- Prevention of pandemics through One Health approaches
The workshop addressed the close links between biodiversity, climate change, human interventions in nature, and zoonotic diseases. The report of the workshop shows possible ways to move from reactionary pandemic control to preventive approaches and what could be the content of these One Health approaches.
The report of the IPBES workshop can be found here.
