Forests and human health in the tropics : some important connections

Unasylva 224, Vol. 57, 2006 Why should foresters concern themselves with issues of human health? There are at least two important answers to this question. First, and perhaps most fundamental, forestry activities affect human health and human health affects forests. Second, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (see Box), which the world’s countries have committed to meet by 2015, reflect increasing global concern about human health. Four of the MDGs (1, 4, 5 and 6) address health directly. It can also be argued that improvements in human health (as part of human well-being) are a prerequisite for accomplishing the seventh goal, which is the most pertinent for foresters. The second and third MDGs stress or imply gender equity. These goals also have fairly direct implications for human health, given the central role women typically play in family health maintenance. In most places it is women who provide families with nutritious meals and maintain standards of hygiene. In forested areas, women’s roles also involve interaction with forests and other natural resources (for non-wood forest products [NWFPs], clean and abundant water, forest agriculture, etc.). As the primary caretakers when other family members fall ill, women in forested areas often treat their family members with forest products. Finally, women are central players in decisions about family size; large families can adversely affect the health of both mother and offspring, and often adversely affect the health of forests as well. Even the realization of the eighth MDG, related to global partnerships, could contribute to improved human and forest health. As with many statistics pertaining to forests, global and regional statistics about the health of people living in forests are subject to some question. But a sense of the magnitude of both health problems for people and the links between forests and health can be grasped from the following sprinkling of statistics. • Smoke from fuelwood and forest fires causes significant human respiratory problems. Smoke from simple biomass fuels may account for 1 million to 2 million premature deaths annually, mainly women and small children in developing countries (see Smith, this issue of Unasylva). Smoke plumes from forest fires can travel hundreds of kilometres, posing a great health risk; the extensive 1997 Indonesian forest fires caused an estimated 16 400 infant and foetal deaths An overview of the state of human health in and around forests,