ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the main linkages between ecosystems and human health, and discusses emerging strategies for integrating ecosystem services and biodiversity into public health science, policy, and practice. Our health is supported by biodiversity and ecosystem services in many ways – through direct provision of essential materials for health and by assimilation of pollutants, buffering against natural disaster, and regulating cycles of disease and infection. Pathogenic organisms have important roles to play in ecology and evolution, and in the maintenance of ecosystem services. Climate change is anticipated to have a significant impact on human health, and many of the changes are directly associated with climate impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Healthy ecosystems can provide important natural buffers and defences against severe weather events and other natural disasters. At the community level, health is a universal and persistent concern.
