Biodiversity provides ecosystem goods and services essential to human health and well-being

Health is a fundamental human right and a key indicator of sustainable development, and has a central place in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda, with Goal 3 calling on all stakeholders to “ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages”. In addition to socio-economic determinants of human health, the impact of environmental, climate, ecosystem change and degradation on health is increasingly recognized.

Biodiversity underpins nature’s contributions to people and provides ecosystem goods and services that are essential to human health and well-being. Biodiversity is also integral to key development sectors that modulate health outcomes directly or indirectly, such as pharmacy, biochemistry, agriculture, or tourism.

Over the last decade, the multiplicity and complexity of linkages between biodiversity and human health have been increasingly recognized.

World Health Days

• 7 April: World Health Day
• 10 October: World Mental Health Day
• 3 November: International One Health Day - initiated in 2016 by the One Health Commission, the One Health Platform, and the One Health Initiative
• 18 – 24 November: World Antibiotic Awareness Week