Connecting Global Priorities Biodiversity and Human Health

Table 2: Examples of cross-cutting indicators
Issue
Water and air quality
Food security,
nutrition, and
noncommunicable
diseases
Infectious diseases
Medicinal resources
Disaster risk and
climate change
Cross-cutting indicators
• Biological/health hazards of source water from dierent sectors (e.g. agriculture; mining; energy
development)
• Chemical integrity of source water (e.g. pesticides, endocrine disrupting compounds, and harmful
algal blooms (cyanotoxins).
• Shifts in lychen species (as an indicator for air quality)
• Nutritional status (e.g. type and prevalence of nutrient deciencies)
• Food species diversity
• Status of unmanaged agrobiodiversity (e.g. pollinators, pests, predators)
• Time spent / distance travelled accessing foods
• Income and dietary intake from traditional foods, including wild foods
• Land used for producing traditional foods
• Prevalence of malnutrition / diet-related non-communicable disease
• Food yields from various resources (e.g. crops, sh/aquaculture, hunting)
• Outbreaks of food-borne disease
• Land use change (e.g. % area, pace of change, intensication)
• Use of agrobiodiversity in healthcare interventions (e.g. intervention type, species used)
• Areas of intact habitat in high risk areas
• Status of wildlife populations (distribution, movement, abundance, diversity, conservation status)
• Outbreaks of zoonotic, water-borne, vector-borne and food-borne disease (frequency,
distribution, morbidity, mortality)
• Outbreaks of human / wildlife / livestock / plant disease
• Water availability, vulnerability and quality
• Land use change (e.g. % area, pace of change, intensication)
• Outbreaks of infectious human/wildlife/livestock disease
• Use of biodiversity for primary medicinal resources (e.g. % of total medicinal use, % income
derived from sale of traditional medicines)
• Status of key species and related habitats
• indigenous population indicators – movements, density, births, morbidity and mortality
• Areas of intact habitat in high risk areas
• Encroachment and degradation (e.g. wetland reclamation, deforestation, urban sprawl)
• Population density in high risk areas
• Dependence of population on local ecosystems for food / medicine / income (e.g. % of total
population, income derived from ecosystems etc)
• Area of land experiencing erosion, deforestation, drought, desertication
• Frequency and severity of disasters
• Population displaced by disasters, and degree / pace of return
• Prevalence of disease after disasters
• Land use change (% area, pace of change, intensication)
• Indicators of climate adaptation and mitigation measures implemented by other sectors on
biodiversity and human health
¹ Adapted from COHAB Initiative, unpublished.
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