One Health Joint Plan of Action (2022–2026)

The One Health Joint Plan of Action was launched by four partners – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE). This initiative seeks to improve the health of humans, animals, plants, and the environment, while contributing to sustainable development. The One Health Joint Plan of Action was developed through a participatory process and provides a set of activities to strengthen collaboration, communication, capacity building, and coordination across all sectors responsible for addressing health concerns at the human-animal-plant-environment interface.

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WildLabs Conservation Technology Community

WILDLABS is home to the global conservation technology community of 8,600 people in 120 countries discussing 1,500 topics like biologging, camera traps, and machine learning. With engaging spaces to ask questions and collaborate together, share your own work, and discover new ideas and innovations, WILDLABS is your platform to connect with #Tech4Wildlife experts and projects from around the world.

IWC Strandings Initiative

The IWC Strandings Initiative was established following a multi-disciplinary expert workshop in 2016. The workshop discussed how best to develop practical guidance on handling cetacean strandings and concluded that an international Strandings Initiative should be established under the auspices of the IWC, incorporating the skills and experiences of strandings experts from a range of different countries around the world.

Interim Guidance on Reducing public health risks associated with the sale of live wild animals of mammalian species in traditional food markets

Traditional food markets, rather than supermarkets, are the norm in many parts of the world. Such markets form part of the social fabric of communities and are a main source of affordable fresh foods for many low-income groups and an important source of livelihoods for millions of urban and rural dwellers worldwide.

Traditional food markets that are regulated by national or local competent authorities and that operate to high standards of hygiene and sanitation are safe for workers and customers.
Significant problems can arise when these markets allow the sale and slaughter of live animals, especially wild animals, which cannot be properly assessed for potential risks – in
areas open to the public. When wild animals are kept in cages or pens, slaughtered and dressed in open market areas, these areas become contaminated with body fluids, faeces and other waste, increasing the risk of transmission of pathogens to workers and customers and potentially resulting in spill over of pathogens to other animals in the market.

Such environments provide the opportunity for animal viruses, including coronaviruses, to amplify themselves and transmit to new hosts, including humans.

One Health and Wildlife

In September 2021 the International Alliance against Health Risks and Wildlife Trade was launched as an inclusive and interdisciplinary platform at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille. Within the first year, more than 100 national and international political, academic and civil society organizations, have joined as members, confirming their commitment to our two central goals.

The Alliance is driven by evidence-based insight, and we address the entire wildlife trade spectrum: from hunting and handling, through trading to consuming wildlife and its products. To reduce the risks of future outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics.

The Alliance helps to join forces for a common cause and expand each member’s radius. We offer matchmaking among members to enable new collaboration and partnership. We translate scientific evidence and insights from local knowledge into concrete policy recommendations.

PANORAMA Species Conservation

Saving species comprehensively means preventing extinctions, conserving threatened species, and recovering depleted populations of more widespread and abundant species. There is ample evidence that conservation action works. Many species have been saved from extinction or had their status improved, native species and ecosystems have recovered following eradication of invasive alien species from islands, and habitats have been restored and rewilded. The last decade has seen an impressive array of innovation and new technologies, approaches, and solutions providing major opportunities to accelerate our collective impact on species conservation. By sharing experience and expertise, and committing the necessary resources more strategically, we can massively scale up success for species survival, recovery, and persistence at healthy levels.

For most threatened species, a combination of threat abatement and site protection will be enough to allow populations to recover. However, for some other species, typically those at highest risk of extinction, these measures alone will be insufficient. These species will require targeted interventions, for example through habitat management, supplementary feeding, provision of breeding sites, reintroduction into the wild, translocation, and ex-situ measures (captive breeding in zoos and aquaria, or propagation in botanic gardens).

The Species Conservation Solutions Thematic Community provides a platform for documenting species conservation success from all over the world. These case studies can be replicated, applied to inspire the best solutions for each species’ challenges, providing resources for the implementation of the Global Species Action Plan (GSAP).

Through PANORAMA, IUCN and EcoHealth Alliance initially aim to promote species conservation solutions with a focus on wildlife and human health, especially the link with zoonotic disease prevention, monitoring, detection and intervention.

Living with Wildlife through One Health

This book is a project undertaken by EcoHealth Alliance to develop an educational tool usable across many cultural contexts. It aims to provide an informative, thorough, and succinct guide to living at the interface between human settlement and wildlife habitat. In areas where human populations come into high levels of contact with animals, it is essential to ensure responsible practices and behaviors to prevent spillover of zoonotic disease from animal reservoirs to humans. With this book, EcoHealth Alliance hopes to aid people and animals worldwide.

Guidelines for Working with Free-Ranging Wild Mammals in the Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, the cause of COVID-19, emerged as a human pathogen in 2019. While it is thought to have a zoonotic source, the original wildlife reservoir and any potential intermediate hosts have not yet been identified. Phylogenetic analyses suggest the progenitor virus is related to beta-coronaviruses previously identified in bats. At this time, SARS-CoV-2 should be considered a human pathogen with people acting as reservoir and sustaining transmission. There is a possibility SARS-CoV-2 will become endemic in the human population and thus be considered as a potential reverse zoonosis to wildlife as with infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and influenza.

Currently the risk of human-to-animal transmission to non-captive wildlife species warrants concern. A number of cases have demonstrated natural human-to-animal transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in felids, canids and mustelids, the majority due to close and prolonged contact with infected households or people, and none has involved free-ranging wildlife. The identification of close phylogenetically-related viruses (e.g. in bats and pangolins), the presence of important cell receptor proteins (ACE2 receptors) and infection following natural exposure or experimental inoculation suggest that a wide range of mammalian species may be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. Knowledge and experience with human-to-animal transmission with other human respiratory pathogens (e.g. metapneumovirus, measles, other human coronaviruses and tuberculosis) indicates that some species taxonomically closely related to humans (e.g. non-human primates) would likely be susceptible to infection and/or clinical disease caused by SARS-CoV-2.

There are valid concerns about the health of individuals or populations if infected with the virus and/or a wildlife population becoming a reservoir for SARS-CoV-2. Any wildlife species/taxa that becomes a reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 could pose a continued public health risk of zoonosis, a risk for the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to other animal species, and the risk of negative perceptions of that species resulting in human threats to the species or their populations.

Efforts that require working with free-living wildlife are vital to professional management and conservation as well as the health of wildlife, people and ecosystems. The recommendations below were developed to minimize the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from people to freeranging, wild mammals. Specifically, these recommendations are for people engaged in wildlife work* in the field, either in direct contact (e.g. handling) or indirect contact (e.g. within 2 meters or in a confined space) with free-ranging wild mammals, or working in situations in which free[1]ranging wild mammals may come in contact with surfaces or materials contaminated by infected personnel.

IUCN SSC CPSG DRA On-line training

This is an introductory course to the IUCN Guidelines for Wildlife Disease Risk Analysis (WDRA). This course is designed to equip participants with an understanding of how to put the guidelines into practice. Our target audiences are government wildlife agency staff, IUCN SSC Specialist Group members, and other conservation professionals and veterinarians working in zoos, aquariums, universities or field programs, responsible for planning for disease management at the interface between people, places and wildlife. By the end of the course, participants will be able to: recognize and justify situations where a WDRA process can contribute to a) wildlife conservation, b) domestic animal health care, and c) public health protection; explain how the principle of One Health and the science of epidemiology are applied to a WDRA; and design a workshop to effectively engage multiple stakeholders in completing a WDRA. Click here to find out more about the course and how to apply to an upcoming session.

IUCN SSC CPSG Species Conservation Planning Online Training Course

This is an introductory course to CPSG’s species conservation planning processes and tools. Our target audiences are government wildlife agency staff, IUCN SSC Specialist Group members, and other conservation professionals working in zoos, aquariums, universities or field programs, responsible for the development of species conservation plans. By the end of the course, participants will be able to: apply the CPSG Species Conservation Planning Principles and Steps to the design and facilitation of species conservation planning processes; demonstrate the role of the facilitator in consensus-based decision making; and select facilitation tools to help groups solve problems, make decisions, and develop plans. Click here to find out more about the course and how to apply to an upcoming session.

2022

One Health principles for sustainable tourism in protected and conserved areas

The wide-reaching effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have included immense loss of life and serious health and economic consequences across communities and ecosystems. Tourism, which itself suffered a sharp disruption in the pandemic, is among the industries that have a strong interest to reduce risks and increase resilience toward a more sustainable model in line with a One Health approach. Protected and conserved areas (PCAs) are an especially important setting for sustainable tourism and can serve as a catalyst for wider adoption of best practices anchored in One Health principles that help to sustainability balance the health of people, animals, and ecosystems. This report presents six core principles, which provide practical strategies for tour operators and wider tourism industry stakeholders in PCAs. They are intentionally broad, allowing for use and adaptation in any PCA context.

2022

Healthy people and wildlife through nature protection

Protected and conserved areas (PCAs) are affected by disease risks and impacts in wide-ranging ways, as demonstrated by recent epidemics and the global COVID-19 pandemic. Their potential role in disease prevention, detection, response, and recovery is significant, both to reduce spillover risks and to effectively prepare for disease events. This report provides an orientation for PCA managers on relevant sources of risk, with actions that can be taken to build up systems to manage disease threats across the variety of PCA contexts. A key message is that protected areas can – and should – play a vital role in One Health approaches to reduce disease risk and improve human, animal, and environmental health outcomes.

2014

Manual of procedures for wildlife disease risk analysis

This IUCN–OIE publication provides a ‘how-to’ guide that will be useful to the growing and diverse range of professionals involved in assessment and management of wildlife-associated disease risk scenarios. The document has been co-written by 22 specialists in the fields of wildlife disease ecology, epidemiology, risk analysis, modelling, disease surveillance, diagnostics, wildlife management, research, teaching and conservation planning. These authors have pooled their knowledge and experience to make tools and processes at the cutting edge of wildlife disease risk analysis accessible to a broad global audience in an effort to ensure healthy ecosystems through better decision making. This is a companion volume to the Guidelines for Wildlife Disease Risk Analysis.