Conservation and Planetary Health: A Journey from Community Forest Conservation to Planetary Health

Join our guest speaker to examine how investments in nature conservation is in turn an investment in public health

Nature conservation and sustaining human well-being are increasingly recognized as interlinked global challenges. Community Forest Management (CFM) is one of the most widespread conservation approaches. It devolves forest management to local communities to achieve both conservation and human well‐being goals. Join us as we investigate the impacts of CFM on well-being of households across Madagascar. In a case study conducted in CFM sites in the eastern rainforests of the country, we find that health is among the most important life domains to households, and forests and CFM are perceived by local communities to be important for health. This indicates that conservation needs to intentionally address human health to be locally accepted and successful.

As an example of health benefits of forests, our results from a study across Haiti and Honduras suggest that moderately forested upstream watersheds enhance the effectiveness of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) efforts at reducing the prevalence of childhood diarrhea. But forests are not the only natural systems affecting human health. Our study in fishery dependent communities in Lake Victoria, Kenya, indicates that fisheries can affect early childhood development through various pathways. Threats to natural systems are public health threats. Investments in nature conservation are therefore public health investments. Efforts are needed to make conservation sensitive to human health, so that it delivers both conservation and human health benefits.

Guest speaker Ranaivo A. Rasolofoson

As the Assistant Professor of Planetary Health at the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto, Ranaivo ’s expertise ranges from processing global remote sensing and socio-economic datasets to working directly in the field with local communities. He has investigated community forest management impacts on deforestation, economic and subjective wellbeing in Madagascar, forest impacts on diarrheal incidence in Central America, and early childhood development and child nutritional outcomes within African inland fisheries. Ranaivo currently examines the roles of environmental resources in resilience to the health impacts of extreme weather events. He also explores how to integrate community conservation and nutrition programs to deliver benefits to nutritional health and the environment in low-income countries.

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