On the other hand, the wetland habitat management project in Ho Sheung Heung, Long Valley was also been affected. Except a day in July, members of EcoPaddy Club were invited to join our rice planting work, all remaining rice planting and harvesting works have to be finished by colleagues of CA and HKBWS.
Our life under COVID-19 pandemic is largely changed and we all worry about the spread of the disease in our society, but we must understand that, the emerge of COVID-19 is closely related to the destruction of nature habitat and ecosystem by human : United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) published a report “Preventing the next pandemic: Zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission” (1) on 6 July 2020. The report stated that the trend of the emergence of zoonotic diseases (2) is increasing, and COVID-19 is a kind of zoonoses. There are seven human-mediated factors that most likely driving the emergence of zoonotic diseases:
1. increasing human demand for animal protein;
2. unsustainable agricultural intensification;
3. increased use and exploitation of wildlife;
4. unsustainable utilization of natural resources accelerated by urbanization, land use change and extractive industries;
5. increased travel and transportation;
6. changes in food supply
7. climate change.
‘The science is clear that if we keep exploiting wildlife and destroying our ecosystems, then we can expect to see a steady stream of these diseases jumping from animals to humans in the years ahead,’ said UNEP executive director Inger Andersen (3)
We must seriously re-think about our current life-style and make a change, and conserve our nature environment. The report suggested to achieve “One Health approach”, which can be defined as the collaborative effort across multiple disciplines to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment. And at the same time, “EcoHealth” should also be applied together to understand and promote the health of ecosystem, so that the emergence of infectious diseases (mostly zoonoses) can be controlled and healthy life for both human, animals and environment can be sustained.
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(1) United Nations Environment Programme and International Livestock Research Institute. 2020. Preventing the next pandemic: Zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission. Nairobi, Kenya: UNEP. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/108707[Accessed 25 July 2020]
(2) Zoonotic disease, also known as zoonoses, is caused by harmful germs that carried by animals and can spread to people, causing illness
( Aronson, D., 2020. Unite Human, Animal And Environmental Health To Prevent The Next Pandemic, Says ILRI/UN Report. [online] ILRI news. Available at: <https://news.ilri.org/2020/07/06/unite-human-animal-and-environmental-health-to-prevent-the-next-pandemic-says-ilri-un-report/> [Accessed 25 July 2020] )
(3) Aronson, D., 2020. Unite Human, Animal And Environmental Health To Prevent The Next Pandemic, Says ILRI/UN Report. [online] ILRI news. Available at: https://news.ilri.org/2020/07/06/unite-human-animal-and-environmental-health-to-prevent-the-next-pandemic-says-ilri-un-report/[Accessed 25 July 2020].
