- Environment
- News
Protecting land and animals will mitigate future pandemics, report says
The same forces driving extinction, habitat loss, and climate change will also lead to future pandemics, say an international group of scientists.
Absent major policy changes and billions of dollars invested in protecting land and wildlife, the world may see another major pandemic like COVID-19, an international group of scientists warned today
Conserving biodiversity can preserve human lives, according to their new report, which reviews the latest research on how the decline of habitat and wildlife leaves humans exposed to new, emerging diseases.
“The science is not in dispute at all about this. Deforestation is a prime driver of pandemics,” says Lee Hannah, a climate scientist for Conservation International who specializes in the effects of forest loss. Hannah peer-reviewed the report, which was compiled at a late July virtual workshop by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a group
