G7-Elmau-Progress-Report-2015-Biodiversity-A-vital-foundation-for-sustainable-development

72 G7 ELMAU PROGRESS REPORTExample 5.7 Exploring potential applications of biodiversity to human health (US)The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) support an InternationalCooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) competitive grants program to explore the potentialapplication of biodiversity to human health. The program invests in research capacity to support sustainable useof natural resources, the knowledge to conserve them and equitable partnership frameworks among researchorganizations in the US and low- and middle-income countries with high levels of biodiversity.The ICBG program supports international, public-private, interdisciplinary research teams in the exploration anddiscovery of novel compounds and natural extracts with potential for development as therapeutic agents formultiple diseases, while at the same time building research capacity and supporting biodiversity conservationin partnering countries. Grants also included biodiscovery for agricultural, crop protection and animal healthapplications as well as bioenergy agents and biofuels.The ICBG program has led to the discovery of promising therapeutic leads. In addition, concrete outcomes of thisprogram have included the declaration of new biodiversity reserves, national parks and one World Heritage Sitebased on the bioinventory and drug discovery data generated through the program. Since the 1990s, the programhas also trained many US and foreign students in a range of biodiscovery sciences (natural products chemistry,drug discovery, molecular biology, taxonomy, systematics, genomics, ecology, botany, microbiology, biodiversitypolicy, ethnomedicine, 11 and others).From 2003 to 2014, ICBG – in cooperation with the National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Center forTropical Forest Science – has also supported the development of a large, permanent, forest dynamics research plotin Papua New Guinea. On the plot, researchers document every tree greater than 1 centimeter in diameter andfollow it over many years, with the intention of capturing the impacts of climate change and human activity onthe trees. The ICBG added an endophyte 12 survey to the research, the first survey in the world in a forest dynamicsresearch plot, and at the same time sampled endophytes to feed into the drug-discovery effort. To provide dependableincomes for the community and sustainability for the science, local parataxonomists 13 have been trained, andthe community that owns the land is actively engaged in the effort.In the past, poorly managed measures to control or eradicatedisease vectors have had negative impacts on biodiversity.Although biodiversity does not provide the answer todeal with every disease we address through Commitments,biodiversity does offer support through the provision ofcomponents for many medicines, and the natural regulationof disease vectors and environmental conditions. The examplesof G7 efforts show that the value of biodiversity forhealth is recognized and addressed in many cases. In addition,we see scope for further expanding upon elements toprotect this health value, possibly as part of integratedprojects addressing biodiversity, food security and climatechange. We can also do more to recognize that healthsupports biodiversity, since healthy people are better positionedto contribute to healthier and more biodiverse ecosystems.