Common environmental change.
Climate change, depletion of stratospheric ozone, loss of biodiversity, changes in hydrological systems and fresh water supply, land degradation and pressures on food production systems pose environmental risks of the great significance of human health on a planetary scale.
Assessing the magnitude and nature of the effects on human health necessitated a new perspective focused on ecosystems and on the recognition that in the long-term, the good health of populations depends largely on maintaining the stability and functioning of the biosphere systems that are essential for life. This perspective also allows us to appreciate the complexity of the systems on which we depend.
Protecting health from changes in the global environment requires management at many levels, from the social and economic determinants of these changes to the dangers that arise and to which people are exposed. WHO supports this link between environmental action and health action.
For example, she contributed her skills to the development of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. She also advised the health sector on measures to address the health risks posed by large-scale environmental changes.
Faced with global environmental change, the new challenges it poses and the uncertainties it raises, it is essential to have access to the best information available. While it is true that science makes an important contribution to the understanding of the planetary and social systems as well as to their interactions, and awareness has grown more and more clearly that scientific knowledge alone is unable to resolve the new environmental crises. The knowledge of indigenous peoples and local communities - often referred to as local, indigenous or traditional knowledge - is now recognized as essential, alongside science, for taking effective and reasoned actions all over the world.
Indigenous communities are also increasingly recognized as important sources of knowledge for assessing climate change and adapting to its consequences.
Most recently, The Future We Want, the document from the Rio + 20 High-Level Summit, highlighted the important contributions made by indigenous knowledge to the preservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, as well as their adequacy social well-being and sustainable livelihoods. thanks
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