Editorial: Can the Health Implications of Land-use Change Drive Sustainability?

Excerpt

In a whimsical moment, we wonder if other primates question whether humans are the most intelligent among them. Why has this species polluted the seas, rivers, air and is now destroying lands that are vital for its own existence and sustainability? Why is this process continuing despite having already driven the sixth mass extinction of life on Earth? For thousands of years, people have cut down forest to provide land for agriculture in a process that seemed sustainable. However, the last 70 years has seen anthropogenic land use change proceed at an unprecedented, exponentially accelerating scale. This process is especially severe in developing countries where logging, human settlements, and the building of roads and highways support a drive for increased agricultural production. These activities are often hugely profitable, contributing to a nation’s economic success. But these short-term economic gains are sometimes marred by chronic negative externalities. The destruction of native forest, wetlands and mangroves reduces critical ecosystem services on which we depend: pollination of fruits and crops vital to a country’s growing population, removal of fish nurseries and breakdown of water purification pathways. The impacts of deforestation on ecosystem services are significant for human well-being, in addition to our economic growth, and are used widely as an argument to reduce land use change. …