Why “one world, one health” matters for the HKH

Calling for a paradigm shift to prevent future pandemics, the Global Landscapes Forum’s (GLF) Biodiversity Digital Conference 2020 focused on the concept of “one world, one health” – an integrated, holistic, and preventative approach to public health which emphasizes the links among biodiversity, conservation, and human health. Within the larger conference, our session on 29 October centred on the need to reinforce positive relations among biodiversity, landscapes, cultures, and health in a post-COVID new normal, not just within the HKH but across the globe.

The GLF is the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on sustainable landscapes and a key global forum generating synergy to halt biodiversity loss. Through this platform and our panel of speakers from Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, we reached an audience across 148 countries, highlighting the biological and cultural diversity of the HKH region and its many associated traditional and indigenous knowledge systems. We also spotlighted our HKH Call to Action, which spells out six urgent actions towards prosperity in the region.