Executive Summary The links between ecosystem approaches to health, natural resource management and poverty reduction are being identified as important and relevant across an increasing number of disciplines and institutions. However,...
moreExecutive Summary
The links between ecosystem approaches to health, natural resource management and poverty reduction are being identified as important and relevant across an increasing number of disciplines and institutions. However, specific implementation guidance is scant. One promising approach to addressing this gap is the integration of two emergent approaches to environmental management: Ecohealth, which argues that human health and well-being are not only dependent on ecosystems but are also important outcomes of effective ecosystem management; and Watershed-based integrated water resources management (IWRM) which is based on the premise that watersheds are appropriate units for managing ecosystems.
Over the past century, the dominant scientific approach to environment and health relationships has been to examine cause and effect relationships between “proximal” environmental exposures and their health effects. Much progress has been made with this kind of work, but the complex, reciprocal interactions among ecosystems, society and health demand a more integrated and systemic approach. Recent convergence of research, policy and practice that re-links the social and ecological context for health lead us to understand that: in coupled social-ecological systems the same driving forces can result in combined social and environmental health inequities, hazards and impacts; policies that decrease social inequities and improve social cohesion have the potential to improve health outcomes and also to minimize and offset the drivers of ecosystem change; and linked social-ecological actions that address both biophysical and social environments have the potential to create a “double-dividend” that improves health by addressing both its socio-economic and environmental determinants, while also promotingsustainable development.
Traditionally, our understanding and management of human health has been organized spatially on the basis of human constructs such as municipalities, counties, health authorities, and provinces or states. While these boundaries do influence environmental and resource management, they often overlook the structure and function of ecosystems, and create a disjuncture between the objects of management and biophysical processes (e.g., between health and nature). A wide range of international reports have now created a demand and imperative to identify specific ecosystem-based contexts in which linkages among health, ecosystems, development and poverty alleviation can be operationalized.
One response to these challenges has been to recognize and prioritize watersheds as appropriate spatial units around which to organize management for natural resources and health.Watershed management and ecosystem approaches offer useful approaches to water management within the physical “place” of the watershed or catchment. Using key management concepts such as resilience, such approaches have the potential to improve our ability to reduce vulnerability to natural hazards, maintain ecological flows of water and the provision of other ecological services, and to promote the long-term sustainability of coupled human and natural systems. Ecosystem approaches and IWRM almost always cite collaborative decision-making and adaptive institutions as central to their approach.Mechanisms to operate such approaches must navigate overlapping jurisdictions, conflicting mandates and multiple interests, while at the same time adapting and responding to new information and operating in contexts of uncertainty.
The challenge remains to establish frameworks and processes that speak not only to public health professionals, but also to ecologists, water managers, planners and the development community. Despite the potential value in explicitly addressing concerns about human health and well-being on a watershed basis, a myriad of challenges exist—many of which reflect the limitations of restricting focus on separate parts of social-ecological systems rather than the interconnections of human and natural systems. These include the challenges of working across jurisdictions and sectors; of integrating academic disciplines and multiple worldviews; of spatial-temporal scale and the relationship between systems defined at different scales; and of the complexity of issues pertaining to each aspect of these social-ecological systems (including climate and atmospheric processes, land uses, ecological processes, social networks, livelihoods and lifestyles). The table below summarizes key issues identified by this report and offers directions for further work.
