ASEAN: Conserve nature to avoid pandemic
With a panel of experts, the ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC) and the ASEAN Center for Biodiversity (ACB) brought to light nature’s role as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic during its first webinar held on 20 May.
Kung Phoak, the Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for Socio-Cultural Community, said during the opening, “In spite of restrictions on movements in most of the ASEAN region, ASEC and the ACB are keen to use this momentum to engage ASEAN sectoral bodies and the general public to exchange knowledge, ideas and experiences on interlinkages of biodiversity and human health.”
Phoak also stressed nature-based solutions through cross-sectoral collaboration and multi-stakeholder engagements to prevent future pandemics. Such practices also encourage the community to be “bioliterate” in adopting behaviors that address the cause of future pandemics or zoonosis (the diseases which can be transmitted to humans from animals), ASEAN stated on its website.
Founding chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Dr. Tan Sri Zakri bin Abdul Hamid said that while most nations are saving human lives and rebooting the economy at the same time, nature must not at all be forgotten.
He said, “After all, the root cause of those zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19 is the destruction of wildlife habitats, a fact endorsed by the most scientific community.”