Proceedings of the conference on “Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change”

Description

The ECBCC 2017 was jointly organised by the German Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), the European Network of Heads of Nature Conservation Agencies (ENCA) in co-operation with the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) / German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv).

The aim of the conference was to discuss the positive and negative effects of biodiversity on human health in a changing climate. In this context, health was considered in its physical, psychological and social dimension, including socio-environmental equity. Resulting discussions lead to recommendations for creating synergies between ongoing policy processes, scientific programmes and practical implementation which were published in the proceedings in late 2018.

The ECBCC 2017 conference proceedings contain abstracts of oral presentations and posters. In addition, summaries of the discussions held during parallel sessions and in plenary are given. Based on these outcomes, the ENCA Interest Group on Climate Change elaborated conclusions for taking forward the evidence of the links between biodiversity and health in the face of climate change during a meeting which was held back-to-back to the conference. They were endorsed by the ENCA network at its 21^st plenary meeting in Lithuania. These recommendations are meant to be used by European nature conservation agencies, health agencies/institutions, municipalities, decision makers on several political levels, non-governmental organizations as well as applied science. They focus on ways forward to promote the evidence of the links between biodiversity and health in the face of climate change and will help to foster the wider application of nature-based solutions complementary to already established medical or technical measures. The recommendations high-light five key areas for action:

1. Increase the evidence base of the contributions of biodiversity for human health and well-being.
2. Increase awareness of the human health and well-being effects of natural environments and biodiversity.
3. Highlight the co-benefits of nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation to policy-makers and regional planning authorities.
4. Foster application of nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation from society and policy.
5. Effectively design and manage green spaces to ensure people have contact with nature and biodiversity

Reference information