Changing Glaciers and Hydrology in Asia - Environmental Health at ...

increased attention to WASH interventions, greater regional cooperation in management ofwater resources, and improved ecosystem resilience.For new or strengthened WUAs and FUGs, co-benefits include local community empowerment;democratic practices such as elections, annual meetings, and publishing decisions and budgets toits members; integration of WASH interventions; and greater involvement of women ingovernance of water.Centers for on-farm water-efficient crop production can yield co-benefits in improved waterefficiency, maintained or improved crop yields, potential to keep farmers on the land and reducemigration, and improved food security and nutrition.Other co-benefits of programs focusing on water management could include sustainable forestrypractices implemented, including afforestation and agroforestry projects, reduced illegal loggingand forest degradation, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity enhancement,protection of watersheds, use of forest resources to improve livelihoods with sustainablepractices, and prevention of forest fires and open burning.5.2.2 Focus on EcosystemsThe health of the mountain ecosystems in High Asia is central to the health of the lowlandecosystems which support the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people in theGanges and Indus watersheds, among others. In addition to their contributions to biodiversityconservation, these mountain ecosystems contribute directly to food security and to humanhealth. Water from the snowpack, glaciers, and slopes of High Asia is the lifeline for all of thesesystems, both human and natural.Where access to fresh water is already limited, changes in the quantity and quality of waterresources will directly impact food security and human health. Human health and well-being areintimately tied to the health of life-sustaining ecosystems, yet this complex relationship is rarelytaken into account in either mainstream health or environment/natural resource managementprogramming.This program approach is based on the premise that a human health sector approach alone isnot sufficient for understanding and improving human health: economic, social, andenvironmental factors all play important roles. The ecosystem management approach to humanhealth (sometimes called the EcoHealth approach) aims to build health interventions based onthe web of ecologically based factors affecting human health – as well as the links between them.Equipped with knowledge about these links, local communities can better manage ecosystems toimprove both human health and the health of the ecosystem while at the same time starting tothink through adaptation strategies for changes induced by climate change.USAID could design two types of programs to promote ecosystem integrity and resilience andpromote human health. Although the approach is integrated in itself, the types could also beimplemented together. One type focuses on conserving or restoring the natural processes ofdiverse ecosystems such as watersheds, flood plains, forest, and wetlands. A second type61