Leveraging the potential of nature-based solutions
Ali Raza Rizvi, Head of Climate Change at IUCN
1.What motivated IUCN to join N4H and what role will your organisation and its NGO partners play to ensure its success?
At IUCN, we are committed to advancing work at the intersection of biodiversity, climate change and human and animal health. This commitment was further demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, where we worked closely with our partners to identify impacts on nature conservation efforts and develop responses and guidance for both immediate relief and longer-term solutions. We are proud to be one of the pioneer partners of N4H and also have the opportunity to be a part of such an important initiative working alongside and collaborating with like-minded organisations to build a cohesive portfolio of work at this intersection.
As a membership organisation, we are able to harness the reach of over 1500 member organisations - comprising both government and civil society organisations - as well as over 18,000 experts on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. Our expert Commissions also includes a Health and Well-being Specialist Group, Human Health and Ecosystem Management group, and a Wildlife Health Specialist group. During the 2021 IUCN Congress, our Members voted for “Resolution 135” - “promoting human, animal and environmental health, and preventing pandemics through the One Health approach and by addressing the drivers of biodiversity loss”. This resolution calls and urges IUCN Members to take a series of actions to promote the One Health approach. As part of the N4H consortium, IUCN aims to mobilise our Member network to ensure N4H efforts adhere to global environmental standards and best practices e.g. protected area managers who work with IUCN Members in the selected countries to put into practice the One Health angle on how to prevent and reduce risks from zoonotic diseases and who then communicate N4H results in global climate and biodiversity policy fora.
2. From your perspective, as Head of Climate Change at IUCN, what is so unique about the Nature for Health initiative?
The N4H initiative brings together key health, nature conservation, climate change and international development organisations for cross-sectoral decision-making at the health-conservation-climate nexus. Too often we see these areas of work working in isolation of each other. IUCN look forwards to seeing how the N4H initiative can promote cross-sectoral solutions at this particular interface.
3. What does success look like to you and your organisation when it comes to N4H?
Success is not just about individual project outcomes, but about leaving behind a legacy of health, nature, and climate decision-makers working together and promoting integrative solutions and the know-how on One Health. Nature-based solutions have the potential to offer far-reaching health outcomes – not just for preventing future pandemics, but for improving air quality, enhancing access to safe water, creating sustainable food systems, and building the climate resilience of communities to hazards such as heatwaves, storms, floods, and associated diseases such as malaria. We are excited to work closely with our N4H partners to build partnerships between public health experts and environmental and climate practitioners, and maximise the opportunities between public health, climate action, and nature conservation.
