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Preventing the Next Pandemic: One Health, emerging infectious diseases and wildlife trade

Tuesday 28th September 12:00 – 13:30 CET Webinar hosted by MEP

About this Event

Wildlife around the globe is under intense pressure from human activity and over-exploitation.

Illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade, poor governance, and corruption have significant negative impacts on ecosystems (e.g. deforestation, forest degradation) and the loss of multiple wild species, affecting the integrity of whole ecosystems, contributing to climate change, and negatively impacting local livelihoods, economic development, and security.

The current COVID-19 pandemic and other disease outbreaks of zoonotic origin such as SARS and Ebola clearly demonstrate the critical need to apply a truly trans-sectoral One Health approach, as a matter of urgency. Efforts must be focused on preventing pandemics of zoonotic origin at their source – in other words, stopping them at the point of spillover of pathogens from animals to humans, well before they can become local outbreaks, epidemics, or global pandemics.

This webinar – organised by the MEPs for Wildlife in partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Humane Society International/Europe (HSI) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) – will discuss the on-the-ground impact of markets for live wildlife, particularly for human consumption, and associated wildlife trade (either from the wild or breeding facilities), the links to biodiversity, climate, security, and health and how to address these threats through an integrated One Health approach.

Programme

Welcome remarks

Hilde Vautmans, MEP, Chair of MEPs for Wildlife group

Short presentation

Prof. Dr. Chris Walzer, Executive Director, Health Program, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

Moderated panel discussion

• Jorge Rodriguez Romero, Deputy Head of Unit, Multilateral Environmental Cooperation, DG Environment

• Dr. Bernard Van Goethem, Director, Crisis preparedness in food, animals and plants, DG SANTE

. Dr. Anne-Lise Chaber, One Health expert, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide

• Cristina Romanelli, Programme Officer for Biodiversity, Climate Change and Health, World Health Organization (WHO)

Moderator

Dr. Joanna Swabe, Senior Director of Public Affairs, Humane Society International – Europe

Concluding remarks

Catherine Bearder, former MEP and founding Chair of MEPs for Wildlife group

Register for Free

Official Launch of the International Alliance against Health Risks in Wildlife Trade


at the IUCN WCC Marseille, Room: H9 – B 11, Press Conference Room
Join us onsite or virtually!

Identifying and reducing human health risks from wildlife trade needs an internationally coordinated and effective approach. To this end, the German Government is officially launching the International Alliance against Health Risks in Wildlife Trade as an inclusive and interdisciplinary platform, with the participation of already some 80 national and international political and civil society organizations, incl. indigenous communities, as well as scientific institutions.

The Alliance will translate the commitment and political will of its members by pooling interdisciplinary information and know-how. It will catalyze joint action by stakeholders from the fields of nature conservation, human and animal health as well as development cooperation and social sciences.

The Alliance focuses on human-wildlife interfaces and associated health risks, specifically in wildlife trade, and the emergence and spread of zoonotic pathogens from wildlife.

We, the Alliance and its members,

  • respect cultural identity, traditional knowledge and practices as well as subsistence use of wildlife,
  • aim to substantially reduce the risks of zoonotic spillovers from wildlife,
  • will enhance international and national awareness, knowledge, policies and action to narrow the gap between science and implementation,
  • contribute to reducing harmful wildlife exploitation.

For further information or registering for the Online Pass, please click here.