Deforestation associated with increased disease outbreaks – Courthouse News Service

Scientists say that pandemics like we lived last year can become more frequent as forests disappear.

Deforestation efforts have long been associated with a variety of serious environmental problems and generally unhealthy planets. Now, according to new research, this continued loss of forests on Earth may be behind another threat to human survival under new surveillance in the Covid-19 world. It is an increase in infectious diseases.

While many associate deforestation with well-proven deforestation in the rainforests of South America and Africa, experts say reckless changes to global forests can have global consequences. I have been warning you for a long time. Deforestation has resulted in a significant loss of habitat for endangered species, has contributed significantly to atmospheric climate change, and seriously threatens the lives of indigenous peoples who rely on forest resources to survive.

However, as a result of the Earth’s ever-depleting forests, there is one thing that is generally less explored by the scientific community. How accurately deforestation contributes to the spread of potentially dangerous diseases. While some studies have linked malaria outbreaks to deforestation in Brazil, to date little has been documented how deforestation affects the spread of disease at the global level. ..

In a new study published on Tuesday Veterinary frontierResearchers have revealed that they have completed a comprehensive study of how changes in the Earth’s forests have contributed to the outbreak of infectious diseases around the world.

Their findings suggest that deforestation, commercial palm plantations, and other replanting activities are directly correlated with an increase in two major disease types: mosquitoes and Vector-borne diseases such as lime disease and malaria transmitted through ticks and zoonotic diseases such as novels Coronavirus caused by jumping from an animal host to a human host.

Serge Morand, lead author and researcher of the study National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) With France Kasetsart University In Thailand, while researchers are trying to figure out exactly how this relationship works, it is clear that human-led environmental changes facilitate the propagation and spread of the disease. I will.

“Although the exact ecological mechanism is not yet known, plantations such as oil palm were developed at the expense of natural forest areas, and reforestation was a monospecific forest created primarily at the expense of grasslands. “I’m assuming that,” Morand said. With the release of the study. “Both land-use changes are characterized by biodiversity loss, and these simplified habitats favor animal reservoirs and disease vectors.”

Researchers carefully examined the changes in forests that occurred between 1990 and 2016 and compared those changes to population density and disease outbreak data.

After examining this wide range of information, researchers found that most of the previous hypotheses suggesting a correlation between forest changes and disease outbreaks were supported. Experts say they have found a significant link between deforestation and epidemics such as Ebola and malaria outbreaks in many tropical countries such as Brazil and Peru. They also found that grassland conversion efforts in warmer countries such as the United States and China were directly linked to an increase in vector-borne infections such as Lyme disease.

Experts further determined that palm oil plantations still share a link to disease outbreaks, even in countries with relatively low deforestation. In Asian countries such as China and Thailand, we have found that the expansion of palm oil plantations directly leads to an increase in mosquito outbreaks such as Zika fever and yellow fever.

Their findings give a clear and striking message. Healthier forests help create healthier planets. As the world continues to be freed from the devastating consequences of Covid-19, experts are how to prioritize the health and well-being of the myriad forest areas of the planet to combat the outbreak of these viruses in the future. It emphasizes that it is necessary to consider whether to do it. ..

“We hope these results will help policy makers recognize that forests contribute to a healthy planet and people, and that governing bodies need to avoid grassland plantations and agricultural transformations.” Mr. Morand said. “We also want to encourage research on how healthy forests regulate disease, by considering the multifaceted values ​​of communities and climate change conservation and mitigation. It may help to better manage forests and plantations. “