Description
HEAL is a policy-linked research initiative designed to examine the cause and
effect relationships between ecosystem alteration and public health outcomes.
The HEAL applied research program will address the current ecosystem-human
health research gap, seeking to more comprehensively characterize how
ecosystem change affects human health, and will test whether and under what
conditions health can be considered an ecosystem-derived benefit. Applied
research, linked to important policy issues at a range of relevant scales, will be
conducted for five specific themes/sites, which will be part of a comprehensive
umbrella cross-site synthesis initiative to “make the whole more than the sum of
its parts” and ensure sharing of prioritized, science-based recommendations
with key policy makers/institutions.
Purpose
Increase support for integrated public health and environmental conservation
initiatives as intimately related, interdependent challenges, to ultimately
improve public health outcomes, equity, and resilience for some of the world’s
poorest people while simultaneously conserving some of the most important
landscapes and seascapes left on earth.
Scope Global
Primary Funders
The Rockefeller Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
(planning grants invested: full initiative funding still under consideration).
Participants & Key Collaborators
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and 25 international partners
including universities, non-governmental organizations, and government
agencies.
Definition of One Health
See 2004 Manhattan Principles on "One World, One Health" in appendices.
Operationally, HEAL will define human health so as to consider the direct
consequences of ecosystem degradation on provisioning services, indirect
relationships operating through changes in regulating services, supporting
services, and cultural services.
Monitoring & Evaluation Strategy
A monitoring and evaluation team will ensure the production of deliverables
and the maintenance of the highest ethical standards. Evaluation plans are tied
to the research goal of characterizing how ecosystem change affects human
health, and are also under development in terms of evaluating progress towards
the ultimate goal of increasing support for integrated public health and
environmental conservation initiatives.
Sources of Information
See Contacts
Contact Steve Osofsky, DVM
Director, Wildlife Health Policy,
WCS
Kent Redford, PhD
Director, WCS Institute
