An Analysis Framework to enable biodiversity projects to take a One Health approach
Summary
The Biodiversity Working Group from GIZ’s Sector Network of Rural Development and Natural Resources Asia-Pacific (SNRD-AP) commissioned a study to explore the biodiversity-health nexus in the region. Literature review and informant interviews allowed understanding the impact of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation on human and animal health and gave insight into the value of collaboration at the nexus. The leading discourse has neglected the environmental pillar of One Health (OH) for long, with little attention given to biodiversity in classic OH actions addressing emerging infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance. The biodiversity-health nexus is essential for pandemic prevention. It is thus urgent to explore how One Health could be integrated into biodiversity and, vice versa, how biodiversity could be integrated into One Health to make pandemic prevention more effective. This study focuses on developing an innovative tool to guide better integration of One Health into biodiversity conservation.
Classifications
Region
Scale of implementation
Ecosystem
Theme
Species Conservation and One Health Interventions
One Health
Challenges
Sustainable development goals
Aichi targets
Challenges
Loss of biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems is caused by several factors, such as ecosystem degradation due to land use changes, climate change, extractive industries and exploitation of forest products, wildlife trade and consumption. These drivers reduce the physical distance between humans, their domestic animals, and wildlife populations, increasing the risk of spillover of zoonotic pathogens from animals to humans. Southeast Asia is a biodiversity hotspot and one of the fastest developing regions in the world. Environmental degradation makes the region a risk area for the spread of zoonotic diseases. The value of One Health in tackling these issues is well-recognised. However, there is no clear path for biodiversity projects on how to recognize contributions to health outcomes and integrate One Health in their work. The Analysis Framework offers projects a uniform assessment tool to discover strengths and potentials and analyse where and how multisectoral OH collaborations can be initiated.
Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries of the framework are the teams of the biodiversity-related projects within the SNRD-AP Biodiversity Working Group. On a larger scale, the tool will benefit partners and stakeholders who will learn how to integrate One Health in their work.
Building blocks
How do the building blocks interact?
The building blocks interact with each other to allow exploring the biodiversity-health nexus in biodiversity conservation projects and identifying where and how multisectoral One Health collaborations can be initiated. Forming a multidisciplinary review team is the first step of the process. The team will be tasked with the responsibility of quickly scanning the project using the Analysis Framework purposely developed and here described as Solution for the integration of One Health in biodiversity. This will allow identifying the gate entries that have the potential to link with the OH approach and leveraging already implemented measures to effectively operationalise it. The next step requires the exploration of enabling conditions that can influence the real actualisation of the identified OH intervention. Finally, the review team will guide a multisectoral and transdisciplinary discussion on the integration of One Health in the project, by engaging all project owners (institutional and development partners) and all actors affected by the intervention (policy makers, local communities and service providers).
Impacts
The Analysis Framework was developed to assist the SNRD-AP Biodiversity Working Group to implement the OH approach within biodiversity-related projects in the Southeast Asia region. The framework allows assessing if the project has a sufficient base for One Health and already applies key OH principles. It enables the identification of potential gate entries, where a OH element can be integrated, and assesses the measures that could allow building a OH element into the project. Through the application of the framework, owners and stakeholders are guided in the revision of the project adopting the OH lens, identifying new opportunities to work across disciplines and engaging with new actors. The framework should be considered a starting point for the transformative process of adding One Health into biodiversity. A radical shift in thinking is required to break down the process of implementing the OH approach into manageable and feasible measurements that are context- and project-specific. By doing so, small-scale actions and successes will likely increase trust in the process and pave the way for a broader integration of One Health within the conservation community. The Analysis Framework was tested on six projects to verify its validity. Tthe Biodiversity-One Health Taskforce of the SNRD-AP Biodiversity Working Group was trained on the step-by-step process to ensure its application on a wider scale.
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