Covering 31% of Earth’s land area and home to 80% of terrestrial species, forests are vital to human health and well-being, but their loss across the planet is devastating. threatens people everywhere.
Here are five things you need to know about the long-standing and ever-evolving relationship between forests and human health.
Forests are key to building climate resilience.
1. Climate change resistant carbon tank
Forest ecosystems keep the planet healthy by regulating climate, rainfall, watersheds, and providing oxygen essential to human existence.
Healthy forests help control climate change by acting as ‘carbon sinks’, absorbing around two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, which contributes to climate change and rising temperatures. globally.
A rapidly changing climate is threatening human existence in a variety of ways: through death and disease caused by extreme weather events, disruption of the food system, and an increase in disease. disability. Simply put, without healthy forests, people around the world, especially in the world’s most vulnerable countries, would struggle to lead healthy and even lives. may even exist.
Forest products are processed into medicines in Vietnam.
2. Nature’s pharmacy: from masks to medicine cabinets
From masks to medicines, Forest products are used around the world every day. Up to 80% of developing countries and a quarter of developed countries depend on medicines made from plants.
The forest contains about 50,000 species of plants that are used by both local communities and multinational pharmaceutical companies for medicinal purposes. For millennia, forest dwellers have treated a variety of ailments with the products they harvest. At the same time, many common pharmaceutical products are derived from forest trees, including cancer drugs from Madagascar periwinkle and antimalarial drugs, ki-ching, and cinchona.
The one health approach, launched as part of the UN response to COVID-19 pandemic, recognizing that the health of people, animals, plants and the wider environment, including forests, are closely linked and interdependent.
A woman carries goods through the Uluguru Natural Forest Reserve in Morogoro, Tanzania.
3. Dinner for 1 billion people
Almost one billion people globally depend on wild food harvesting such as herbs, fruits, nuts, meat and insects for a nutritious diet. In some remote tropics, wildlife consumption is estimated to cover 60 to 80 percent of daily protein requirements.
A study from 43,000 households across 27 countries in Africa found that the dietary diversity of children exposed to forests was at least 25% higher than those of children not exposed to forests.
In 22 countries in Asia and Africa, including both industrialized and developing countries, researchers found that indigenous communities consume an average of 120 wild foods per community. and in India, an estimated 50 million households supplement their diets with fruit harvested from the wild and surrounding forests. bush.
Communities in Timor-Leste are helping restore mangroves.
4. Forests are very important for sustainable development
Forests provide goods and services, jobs and income for approximately 2.5 billion people worldwide; that’s about a third of the global population.
Keeping forests – and people – healthy is also central to sustainable development and Agenda 2030. Woodlands plays an important role in driving progress around the world Sustainable development goals (SDGs), include:
SDG 3 Happy: Woodlands feels good. Studies show that spending time in the woods can boost the immune system while enhancing positive emotions and reducing stress, blood pressure, depression, fatigue, anxiety, and stress. Human health and happiness depends on the natural environmentprovides essential benefits such as clean air, water, healthy soil and food.
SDG 6 Water: Forests play a filter role in the supply of fresh water. About 75 percent of the world’s accessible freshwater comes from forested river basins. By supplying water to rivers, forests provide drinking water to nearly half of the world’s largest cities. Threats to forests that can cause water shortages and put global freshwater resources at risk for people around the world are among the pressing issues to be addressed at the upcoming meeting. next UN Water Conference 2023.
SDG 13 Climate action: Forests buffer the effects of storms and floods, protecting people’s health and safety during extreme weather events. For centuries, forests have acted as nature socioeconomic safety net in times of crisis. Sustainably managed and protected forests mean improved health and safety for all.
Deforestation continues despite international calls to protect forests.
5. Forests need to be protected
The wide-ranging benefits of forests are well known, but that does not mean that they offer the protection they perhaps deserve. Fire, insect damage and deforestation have lost up to 150 million hectares of forest in certain years over the past decade, more than the area of a country like Chad or Peru. The production of agricultural commodities alone, including palm oil, beef, soybeans, timber, pulp and paper, is responsible for about 70% of tropical deforestation.
Many governments have adopted forest-friendly policies and others have increased investment in forests and trees. Local communities and actors are making their own strides, sometimes tree by tree. The United Nations was established Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2023) and its agencies are tapping into partnerships with local and global stakeholders to better protect forests, from planting three million trees in Peru to empowering women. Young woman working as a community ranger to protect the illegal animal trade in Indonesia.
Established in 2008, UN-REDD is the United Nations’ leading knowledge and consulting partner on forests and climate, supporting 65 partner countries. Drawing on the expertise of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the United Nations Development Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), this initiative has seen member states reduce forest emissions by the equivalent of 150 million cars on the road a year, opening up a lot more fresh air.
For guidance on creating an enabling environment in which everyone can benefit from all the forests have to offer, FAO made recommendations along with a closer look at many of the key links between forests and human health in its report, Forests for human health.
