Connecting Global Priorities Biodiversity and Human Health

poor and vulnerable communities, including
through inundation in low-lying cities and the
health risks from inadequate water supply,
sanitation and housing. However, affluent urban
areas also face new challenges. In addition to other
negative health impacts described throughout
this volume, recent findings suggest that climate
change may contribute to an increased incidence
in allergies, particularly in urban areas.
Climate change may alter the diversity,
production, allergenicity, distribution and timing
of airborne allergens. These changes contribute
to the severity and prevalence of allergic disease
in humans. Increased CO 2 and temperature
is altering seasonality and beginning to affect
the quantitative and/or qualitative aspects of
the three distinct plant-based contributions to
allergenic pollen: trees in the spring, grasses and
weeds in the summer, and ragweed (Ambrosia
spp.) in the fall (autumn) (Ziska et al. 2015). For
example, a recent study on changes in climate
in the United States has found that rising
temperatures, altered precipitation patterns,
and increasing atmospheric CO 2 are expected to
contribute to increasing levels of some airborne
allergens, and associated increases in asthma
episodes and other allergic illnesses, compared
to a future without climate change (Neal et al.
2015). Several prior studies using urban areas as
proxies for both higher temperatures and CO 2 also
showed earlier flowering of pollen species, which
may lead to a longer total pollen season (Neil
and Wu 2006; George et al. 2007). Microclimatic
effects of urbanization have been associated with
longer pollen seasons and earlier floral initiation
in European cities (Rodriguez-Rajo et al. 2010).
As climate change, biodiversity loss and other
pressures combine to pose new challenges, they
also present new opportunities for positive
development to protecting biodiversity, health
and well-being, including in urban areas and at
subnational levels (Puppim de Oliveira et al.
2010). Further multidisciplinary study of these
various intersections and greater collaboration
across various scales of governance, including
local governance and communities, are a necessary
prerequisite to meeting these challenges (Reid
2015). As the next section discusses, ecosystembased
conservation and adaptation provide
important opportunities for communities to play
a central role in the development of strategies to
address climate change.
3. Ways forward
3.1 Ecosystem-based adaptation and
ecosystem-based mitigation
Biodiversity conservation can support efforts
to reduce the negative effects of climate change
through ecosystem-based approaches to mitigation
and adaptation.²³ Conserved or restored habitats
can remove CO 2 from the atmosphere, thus helping
to address climate change by storing carbon (for
example, reducing emissions from deforestation
and forest degradation). Mangroves are natural
sources of biodiverse food, fish, shells, fruits,
fuel, medicines, and they act as natural bioshields
that protect coastal lands and local communities
from the impacts of climate-related extreme
weather events, and also contribute to carbon
sequestration. Adaptation strategies to conserve
intact mangrove ecosystems or to repopulate them
can thereby help attenuate potentially severe
impacts of climate change, including flooding
and storm surges, while contributing to climate
mitigation efforts and saving human lives (Das
and Vincent 2009).
Many successful examples of ecosystem-based
approaches are beginning to emerge.²⁴ Ecosystembased
adaptation (EBA) activities can include:
establishing diverse agroforestry systems to
²³ Ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA) integrates the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services into an overall climate change
adaptation strategy, while ecosystem-based mitigation (EBM) involves using ecosystems for their carbon storage and
sequestration abilities, by creating, restoring and sustainably managing ecosystems as a climate mitigation strategy.
²⁴ For example, the forest rehabilitation project in Krkonoše and Sumaya National Parks in the Czech Republic is one of several
examples of the implementation of ecosystem-based adaptation strategies and the challenges they have encountered (see
Naumann et al. 2011; Dowald and Osti 2011).
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