In its recently released report, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warns that as many as 850,000 viruses may affect humanity in the future.
The report, prepared by 22 experts on the topic nominated by governments and IPBES, stressed that future pandemics will be much deadlier and costlier than the one that the world is currently experiencing. Gathered at a virtual workshop, the scientists stressed that failing to change humanity’s approach towards infectious diseases globally, will cause pandemics to occur more often, spread faster, kill more people and more seriously affect the global economy.
The authors of the report believe that the current pandemic, as well as those which may emerge in the future, are connected exclusively to human activity, the degradation of the environment, and unsustainable economic development. Since the great influenza pandemic in 1918, the world population has experienced at least six global outbreaks including COVID-19. Although it is a virus that is transmitted to people by animals, its emergence is a direct result of the irresponsible actions of humans, scientists concluded.
Dr. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance and Chair of the IPBES said that “Changes in the way we use land, the expansion and intensification of agriculture and unsustainable trade, production and consumption disrupt nature and increase contact between wildlife, livestock, pathogens, and people. This is the path to pandemics.”
However, the risk of potential outbreaks can be significantly reduced by taking a reasonable approach towards the exploitation of natural resources, aiming to reduce wildlife-livestock-human contact. According to experts, governments and the population of the planet have to prevent the further destruction of biodiversity, enhance protected areas, and ensure that they remain untouched.
The IPBES report finds that humanity has a range of tools and abilities with which to tackle outbreaks but unfortunately these are not fully utilized. While the focus should be on preventing pandemics by reducing the possibility of their emergence, so far the trend has been to tackle them as they emerge through vaccines, medicines, or lockdowns which are all costly measures which could be avoided.
“The fact that human activity has been able to so fundamentally change our natural environment need not always be a negative outcome. It also provides convincing proof of our power to drive the change needed to reduce the risk of future pandemics – while simultaneously benefiting conservation and reducing climate change,” said Daszak.
The report clearly shows that the measures applied to tackle outbreaks must change if governments target to avoid not only human suffering but also damaging the global economy through the loss of tens of billions of dollars thus reducing many people around the world to poverty.
According to its corporate website, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an independent intergovernmental body established by States to strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being, and sustainable development. It was established in Panama City, on 21 April 2012 by 94 Governments.
