Though they share many goals, human health and conservation organizations rarely share resources, strategies and expertise to address common challenges. A recent paper in BioScience analyzes the shared threats that sewage pollution poses to people and coral reefs, and argues that conservation and human health practitioners could be far more effective by establishing formal, cross-sector alliances to maximize investments, improve outcomes, and benefit both people and nature.
The Gist
“Poor water quality is a prime example of a shared threat that both corals and humans face,” says TNC marine scientist, Steph Wear. In her paper, “Battling a Common Enemy: Joining Forces in the Fight Against Sewage Pollution,” Wear notes that the health of both coral reefs and people are imperiled by a threat that is simultaneously local and global: sewage.
The irony, according to Wear, is that in many cases, human health and marine conservation sectors are fighting the same root causes and effects of poor water quality. They’re just fighting them separately. That separation, argues Wear, is a lost opportunity because, as her paper shows, some of the world’s largest and most influential health and conservation organizations, including TNC, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the One Health Initiative, are already positioned to engage in holistic, cross-sector, human-environmental work.
The Big Picture
Most human health challenges have an environmental component.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that eliminating environmental hazards – like sewage pollution – could prevent as much as 25 percent of the world’s disease burden. There is also potential for substantial long-term savings by addressing root causes. For example, protecting and managing watersheds to maximize their ability to improve water quality is often far more cost effective and quicker than installing new pipes, water treatment facilities and sewage systems to serve millions of people.
The recognition that collaborations among human health and environmental organizations are necessary for successful, lasting outcomes has grown over the last 20 years. But even with the advent of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, recognition alone has not been enough to spur action, and, says Wear, “cross-sector collaborations are still the exception rather than the rule.”
Why? In a word: silos.
“If health and conservation organizations continue to work in our traditional silos,” says Wear, “we can expect more of the same: Incremental results, occasional successes and temporary fixes that rarely get to the root of the problem. Without mandates to collaborate and solve problems, organizations stick to what they know. We need to change our default from separation to collaboration.”
The Takeaway
Many organizations are already making progress towards creating the enabling conditions for broader and more effective collaborations. TNC’s work with the Bridge Collaborative and the Science for Nature and People Partnership is designed to find solutions at the intersection of human and environmental health.
But we need to do more, says Wear. “Bringing together epidemiologists, engineers, economists and ecologists is likely to result in better informed and, arguably, better designed solutions to problems facing both people and nature.”
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