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United Nations Nations UNITED NATIONS NATIONS THE SECRETARY-GENERAL PROLOGUE FOR SUSTAINING LIFE: HOW HUMAN HEALTH DEPENDS ON BIODIVERSITY (AN INITIATIVE OF UNDP, UNEP, WHO AND THE CENTER FOR HEALTH AND THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT AT HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL, TO BE PUBLISHED BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS) October 2004 One of the main reasons the world faces a global environmental crisis is the belief that we human beings are somehow separate from the natural world in which we live, and that we can therefore alter its physical, chemical, and biological systems without these alterations having any effect on humanity. Sustaining Life challenges this widely held misconception by demonstrating definitively, with the best and most current scientific information available, that human health depends, to a larger extent than we might imagine, on the health of other species and on the healthy functioning of natural ecosystems. Biological diversity -- the variety of life on earth - is at the heart of our efforts to relieve suffering, raise standards of living and achieve the Millennium Development Goals. We cannot do without the countless services provided by biodiversity - pollinating our crops, fertilizing our soils with nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients, providing millions of people with livelihoods, medicine and much else. Advances in medicine, including treatments for currently unbeatable diseases, would not be possible without the powerful pharmaceuticals derived from plants, animals, and microbes, or without the knowledge gained from other species in biomedical research. We must conserve and sustainably use this pillar of human life. Yet biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, and is woefully underappreciated as a resource and as an issue meriting high-level attention. This publication is an attempt to help the world change course. I applaud the Centre for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School for assembling the international scientific team, from developed and developing countries alike, that produced this seminal work. I am delighted that this educational effort is also the produce of close cooperation with a number of UN agencies including the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Development Programme. Written in straightforward, non-technical language that any reader can understand, Sustaining Life is meant to educate and inform. But it also aims to convey a sense of urgency around the issue and, ultimately, to convince policy-makers and the public that our very lives and future health and prospects depend on addressing this challenge with all our creativity and wilL.sp that we do not deprive future generations of the opportunity to benefit"from nature?;s Wealth. '.T-. Note to the Secretary-General Prologue to book on biodiversity UNDP has asked whether you would agree to provide a prologue for Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity. The book is an initiative of the Centre for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, which worked closely with UNDP, UNEP, WHO and the. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. It is to be published by Oxford University Press in Fall 2005, and distributed around the world in English, French, Spanish and Arabic. These publishing partners say it is the most comprehensive review ever published of the dependency of human health on the health of other species and on the natural functioning of healthy ecosystems. The book is geared for a general audience^ and written in non-technical, everyday language so that its message is compelling and widely understood. The foreword is being written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist Edward O. Wilson, and the book will be edited by Ari Bernstein and Dr. Eric Chivian, who shared the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for co-founding the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. UNDP, UNEP, WHO and the CBD Secretariat recommend that you agree to contribute, given the importance of the issue, the involvement of UN agencies, and the prominence of the project. I agree. Attached for your consideration is a draft prologue, which has been reviewed by the relevant UN partners. Edward Mortimer 6 October 2004 / C.
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