Not only the emergence of new diseases, but also epidemics of infectious diseases appear to be linked to deforestation as recently evidenced for malaria epidemics in Brazil ( 16). Several studies have as exemplified that multiple factors are responsible of the outbreaks of Ebola in Africa ( 12, 13), Nipah ( 14) or Plasmodium knowlesi in Southeast Asia ( 15). Nonetheless, it remains difficult to disentangle the respective influences of forest loss and conversion, other land use changes, demography, increased human and agricultural encroachments or the pressures of hunting on the rise of infectious diseases. In Southeast Asia, a recent meta-analysis showed that increasing prevalence of vector-borne diseases such as dengue or chikungunya was associated with land conversion, including forests, to commercial plantations such as teak, rubber and oil palm ( 11). However, the loss of disease regulation during forest conversion has not been well-investigated. Forest conversion to commodities such as oil palm may affect several ecosystem functions such as carbon sequestration and soil regeneration ( 10). The overall rate of this commodity-driven deforestation has not declined since 2001 ( 9). ( 8) a quarter of global forest loss is due to the conversion of forest to produce commodities (beef, soy, palm oil, and wood fiber). The Aichi targets 14 and 15, respectively, highlight the role of ecosystems in contributing to essential services and contributing to health as well as biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation ( 7).Īccording to Curtis et al. The Aichi target 5 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) calls for a sharp decrease of the rate of loss of forests which should be to zero by 2020 ( 7). More precisely, the SDG 15 has two indicators with the first one that measures the proportion of the global forest area and the second one that assesses progress toward Sustainable Forest Management. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations (UN) specifically refers to the importance of forests. Deforestation is a major cause of biodiversity loss ( 5) and the latest report on forests by United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has emphasized the negative impact of deforestation on human health ( 6). The COVID-19 pandemic has called to investigate the consequences of biodiversity loss for the emergence of zoonotic diseases ( 1– 4). We develop recommendations to scientists, public health officers and policymakers who should reconcile the need to preserve biodiversity while taking into account the health risks posed by lack or mismanagement of forests. The results are discussed in light of the importance of forests for biodiversity, livelihoods and human health and the need to urgently build an international governance framework to ensure the preservation of forests and the ecosystem services they provide, including the regulation of diseases. Our study gives new support for a link between global deforestation and outbreaks of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases as well as evidences that reforestation and plantations may also contribute to epidemics of infectious diseases. We also find that outbreaks of vector-borne diseases are associated with the increase in areas of palm oil plantations. Taking into account the human population growth, we find that the increases in outbreaks of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases from 1990 to 2016 are linked with deforestation, mostly in tropical countries, and with reforestation, mostly in temperate countries. This study explores at global scale whether the loss and gain of forest cover and the rise of oil palm plantations can promote outbreaks of vector-borne and zoonotic diseases. 4Inserm-Laboratoire Population Environnement Développement (Aix-Marseille Université, IRD), Marseille, Franceĭeforestation is a major cause of biodiversity loss with a negative impact on human health.3Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.2Faculty of Veterinary Technology, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand.1CNRS ISEM-CIRAD ASTRE, Montpellier University, Montpellier, France.
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