Other Events (non-USSEE)
EcoHealth: Healthy Environments, Healthy Peopleâ€Â
December 1st –5th, 2008, Mérida, México
IEF 2008 HOST
- National Institute of Public Health of Mexico (INSP)
IEF 2008 Co-Chairs
- Mario Henry RodrÃguez, Director General, INSP
- Ulisses Confalonieri,
FIOCRUZ, Brazil
Collaborating organizations
- Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) - Brazil
- Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (IPE) - Brazil
Steering Committee
- IEF 2008 Co-Chairs
- Dominique Charron (IDRC and Committee Chair)
- Roberto Bazzani (IDRC)
- Horacio Riojas (INSP)
- Jonathan Patz, (U. Wisconsin, President, IAEH)
- Colin Soskolne (U. Alberta and IAEH)
- Suzana Pádua, (Director, IPE)
Sessions
The forum will examine research and practice in EcoHealth as they relate to:
- Agricultural transformations
- Biodiversity and Emerging diseases
- Capacity Building/Education
- Global ecological changes
- Conservation medicine
- Development and sustainability
- Ecological integrity
- Environmental/ecological economics
- Environmental pollution
- Governance, soft and hard law instruments
- Oceans
- Participatory, Integrated and transdisciplinary methods
- Policy impacts
- Public health
- Right to health
- Risk and mass communications
- Urbanization
- Values, ethics, and human and environmental rights
Human health and development are dependent on healthy ecosystems. Yet, global ecosystems continue to deteriorate under increasing pressure from human development activities and patterns of consumption. Thus, the need is urgent to understand the linkages among public health, ecosystems, and social and economic conditions. The need to devise interventions to reconnect people and ecosystems to protect both is our goal.
The quest for healthy ecosystems and sustainable human health requires innovative thinking across disciplines and professions. New research and policy partnerships, community participation and empowerment, and more effective and integrated mechanisms for communicating concerns in the public interest are needed.
In December 2008, in Mérida, México, the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) of México will host the International EcoHealth Forum 2008 in collaboration with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada), the International Association for Ecology and Health (IAEH), the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Brazil (FIOCRUZ), and theInstitute of Ecological Research, Brazil (IPE). The Forum will promote research, theory and practice internationally to consolidate the growing community of researchers, policy makers, and civil society representatives. It will bring a better understanding of the holistic links between ecosystems and human health and the identification of pathways for more sustainable action and interventions. The role of transdisciplinary approaches towards discovery and sustainable solutions will be emphasized throughout.
IEF 2008 will showcase evidence of theory and practice regarding our dependence on ecosystem health. Evidence of the impact of social and ecological changes on the global environment and, in turn, on human health, will be discussed among the Forum̢۪s delegates. Special emphasis is will be placed on EcoHealth research in developing countries, fostering exchanges of lessons learned between developing and developed countries.
Conference participants – researchers, policy makers and practitioners – will learn how project outcomes have been used by other policy makers, stakeholders and community representatives to effect improvements in ecosystem management, disease prevention and environmental protection.Experiences on research and practices, including methodological gaps, as well as opportunities for intervention and policy development will be presented. Renewing and establishing networks will further our capacities to continue promoting healthy ecosystems and, in turn, healthy people.
Conference delegates are invited to plan now to contribute with paper, video and oral presentations to the development of new approaches and ideas in EcoHealth by being an active participant in IEF 2008.
For more information, contact the INSP Coordinator, Jaime Grace Engel. Once the IEF 2008 website becomes live (www.ecohealth2008.org), symposia and abstract submissions will be accepted (electronic submissions only).
