11/09/2024
The world’s forests are vanishing, due to human activity. We’re not just losing a vital habitat, but also our first line of defence against pandemics. Large areas of trees have been felled for their timber, causing forests to be degraded (meaning they don’t function efficiently) and entire forests have been cleared (deforestation) for grazing cattle, growing soy, and producing palm oil.1
Healthy forests keep diseases locked away, but this damage we’re causing is allowing them to escape. HIV, Zika, Sars, mpox (formerly known as monkeypox), and Ebola are just some of a long line of diseases that have emerged from tropical forests. Though it’s too late to stop the escape of these pathogens, restoring forests could prevent even more following in their wake.
