Mainstreaming biodiversity and climate solutions for sustainable and healthy food systems

WHO Side Meeting for the 15^th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15)

Biodiversity and well-functioning ecosystems provide goods and services essential for human health. These include nutrition and food security, clean air and fresh water, protection from coastal storms and inland flooding, medicines, cultural and spiritual referents, and contributions to local livelihoods and economic development. They also help to limit disease and stabilize the climate.  Health policies need to recognize these essential contributions.

The next series of regional capacity building workshops, to be jointly convened by WHO, IUCN and WHO regional offices, will have a more dedicated focus on critical sub-themes at the biodiversity-health nexus, notably food security, nutrition, and noncommunicable diseases, with an emphasis on Nature-based Solutions and One Health.

To maximize resources and efficiency, this upcoming regional workshop will be held at the margins of the 15^th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) as representatives of Ministies of Health responsible for biodiversity conservation, management and sustainable use, as well as representatives from Indigenous communities in the PAHO region, will already be in attendance of the COP 15. 

This workshop on Health, Climate and Biodiversity will be co-hosted by the World Health Organization Headquarters, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization. It will provide a forum for governments and experts from the health, environment and related sectors in the region to:

• Discuss mainstreaming of biodiversity-health linkages into the environment and public health policies, plans and projects;
• Strengthen national capacities on biodiversity, climate and human health inter-linkages, with particular focus on Sustainable and Healthy food systems, Nature-based Solutions and One Health;
• Provide a forum for the exchange of best practices and lessons learned for the integration of biodiversity, climate and health linkages in the PAHO region and in SIDS countries of the Caribbean;
• Promote the integration of human health and biodiversity linkages into national health strategies, national health strategies and national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs), health national adaptation plans and other relevant national reporting instruments.
• Provide a platform for the official regional launch of WHO guidance for mainstreaming biodiversity for nutrition and health in the Americas region;
• Provide inputs and select case studies for a special report on the integration of health in the “Nature-based Solutions for Health” report being developed in collaboration with the Expert Working group on biodiversity, Climate, One Health and Nature-based Solutions, which will have a launch event at the PMAC 2023 conference.
• Support the mainstreaming of health in the 10-year post-2020 global biodiversity framework that will be adopted at COP 15.

The meeting outcomes, in the form of a draft “Montreal Roadmap for Biodiversity, Climate and Health” will be reported in a plenary session on One Health of the 5th Science Policy Forum for Biodiversity at COP 15 to be held on 11 December 2022.

This workshop will be held in a hybrid format, by invitation only. For any additional information, please contact Ms. Cristina Romanelli: [email protected]