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About the Event:
At the ongoing UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 15) in Montreal the achievement and delivery of the CBD’s Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 is reviewed and a final decision on the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework shall be taken. This GBF and the Action Plan for Biodiversity and Health provide a once-in-a-decade opportunity to insert the health angle into the biodiversity discourse and concretely help reduce the risk of future pandemics of zoonotic origin. They are key to the implementation of a holistic approach to pandemic prevention, encompassing and building on the One Health approach.
To give onsite insights from the ongoing negotiations and outlook what comes next, the International Alliance against Health Risks in Wildlife Trade is thrilled to host an
Postponed: Expert Interview from the CBD COP
with Cristina Romanelli and Dr. Kim Grützmacher
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Both will share with us their impressions of the dynamics in Montreal, specifically focusing on the intersection of health topics in the biodiversity discourse. They will offer insights from the negotiations and report on outcomes relevant to the Alliance’s goals regarding pandemic prevention at the source and One Health. Together we will look towards the future and consider what impact this COP’s results will have on other ongoing international Biodiversity and One Health processes for pandemic prevention.
About the Speakers:
Cristina Romanelli is a programme officer and focal point on biodiversity, climate and health with the World Health Organization. She has over 20 years of experience in policy evaluation and development, multi-stakeholder engagement, capacity-building, and interdisciplinary research at the nexus of biodiversity conservation and management, global health, climate change, and One Health. She has provided high-level scientific and policy advice in research and regulatory-compliance settings, primarily in the areas of biodiversity and ecosystem management and conservation, global and public health, One Health, climate change, and regulatory energy policy. She also managed the WHO’s Joint Work Programme on biodiversity and health with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and now co-leads the WHO-IUCN expert working group on biodiversity, climate, One Health and Nature-based Solutions.
Dr. Kim Grützmacher is a Senior Advisor One Health / Biodiversity and Health in the secretariat of the Alliance and member of the GIZ observer mission to the CBD COP. She is also thematic lead for planetary health at the Museum für Naturkunde (MfN) / Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science. Previously, she worked as a Program Manager for the Health Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). At WCS Kim provided technical guidance on wildlife health and health management issues as they arose for WCS site and species-focused conservation projects, within a One Health framework. Having earned her PhD from the Robert Koch Institute (in collaboration with the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology), she advises the German Government as vice-chair of the scientific advisory board on One Health to the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
About the Alliance:
The International Alliance against Health Risks in Wildlife Trade serves as an inclusive and interdisciplinary platform to discuss challenges and formulate solutions vis-á-vis human-wildlife interfaces and associated health risks and the emergence and spread of zoonotic pathogens from wildlife. The Alliance is aiming to enhance international and national awareness, knowledge, policies and action, not least by narrowing the gap between science and implementation
We are very much looking forward to jointly reflecting on the just finished CBD COP in Montreal. Please feel free to forward and share this invitation with interested colleagues.