On Monday OneNature, along with more than 60 other groups representing a variety of different fields, sent a letter to the Biden Administration urging a whole-of-government approach to prevent future pandemics. Over the last year, we’ve all learned more than we ever wanted to know about pandemics. Importantly, we’ve learned that it isn’t enough just to respond when pandemics emerge, or to try to contain them as they start to spread. Instead, we need to prevent pandemics before they emerge, by changing the way we interact with the world around us.
At OneNature, we always operate on the principle that human well-being is inextricably linked to animals and nature. Disease is one of the most visceral examples of that interdependence. The majority of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic – meaning they start in animals and are transmitted from animals to humans – and most of these zoonotic diseases originate in wildlife.
But wildlife isn’t the problem. Indeed, wild animals are essential to the healthy lands and waters that are the backbone of life on Earth. It is human activities that put us at risk for zoonotic disease. Wildlife trade and encroachment into wild habitats put us into greater contact with wild species; and biodiversity loss reduces the buffer species that prevent diseases from jumping into humans.
That’s why OneNature calls on U.S. policy makers to break down institutional silos and tackle the root causes of zoonotic spillover. The connection between our well-being and that of nature cannot be ignored. The only effective response to this global pandemic and to future pandemics, includes protecting, conserving, and restoring, the natural habitats, biodiversity, and ecosystems that support us all.