Ecosystem disruption and human health (supplement)
Summary report of a consultation hosted by IDRC and UNEP
We human beings are intimately bound, even biologically, to our food-producing environment, to the natural resources that surround us. So we should not pretend, as we have often done in the past, to be dispassionate observers of agroecosystems, as if they were so many goldfish bowls. Like soil and water, plants and animals, bacteria and fungi, we, along with the infrastructure we have built around ourselves, are integral and dynamiccomponents of these complex systems.
Table of contents:
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1 - 1
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2 - 3In 1950, the world population was 2.5 billion. By 2001, it had swelled to 6.15 billion and, of course, is still growing.
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4 - 7
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9 - 14This is an abridged version of Dr. Suzuki’s plenary address to the Canadian Conference on International Health.
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15 - 16
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17 - 20Gulley-forming erosion in Africa. Soil degradation, a threat to food production and rural nutrition, is a growing problem in many parts of the world. Half the arable land of the Ethiopian Highlands, for example, is thought to be moderately to severely eroded. A research project there analyses tradeoffs between higher farmer income, food self-sufficiency and soil conservation.
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21 - 22
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23 - 24
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25 - 32Ecuador (pesticides and potatoes) Around the world, pesticides pose a serious health hazard, not only to those who prepare and apply them, but also to women and children in and around rural households. This report looks at the health effects on potato growers in Ecuador. Brazil (Mercury contamination) Deforestation and soil erosion along the shoreline of the Tapajós River in the Brazilian Amazon have led to a buildup of poisonous methylmercury in fish. Local communities and researchers, however, have solutions to the problem. Africa (AIDS) Kenya (Malaria Control) Thailand (Shifting Cultivation) Peru(Amazon Frontier) Sri Lanka (irrigation) West Africa (rice and vector-borne diseases)
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34 - 35An Emerging Consensus on Ecosystems and Human Health
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36 - 36
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