Speaking to FMT in conjunction with the International Day for Biological Diversity today, an annual celebration by the United Nations (UN) to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues, Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Terengganu state chairman Wong Chee Ho said he had no doubt that Covid-19 is a disease which has “jumped from nature to humans”.
In its official report on the origins of Covid-19 released in March, the World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted the potential risk of transmission of diseases from contact between wildlife and people, pointing out that the destruction of natural ecosystems is also demolishing the barrier protecting humans from wildlife-borne viruses.
Noting that nearly three-quarters of emerging human infectious diseases are viruses that have infected humans after cross-species transmission from wildlife or domesticated animals, WHO’s analyses showed that these spillover activities are driven by factors that include large-scale environmental and socioeconomic factors such as land-use change, deforestation and agricultural expansion – all of which threaten biodiversity.
“When we overexploit nature, it has a way of getting back at us. This is a cycle which many people are not aware of. We cannot just keep on developing and using land or forests for agriculture or urbanisation,” Wong said.
“There are already quite a number of species which are on the brink of extinction. The message here is that we all need to be more aware of the need to conserve nature.”
WWF Malaysia also weighed in on the matter in a statement earlier this week, noting that the loss of nature is resulting in increased vulnerability to pandemics, and undermining efforts to tackle climate crisis besides threatening livelihoods.
Stating that world leaders are scheduled to make critical decisions later this year on the climate and the environment, the group said that this represents a “momentous opportunity” to reverse biodiversity loss.
In a separate statement, Greenpeace East Asia forests and oceans project manager Pan Wenjing stressed that researchers have increasingly raised concerns about the risks of infectious disease due to biodiversity loss.
Pan said that rich biodiversity protects humans from disease transmission from mosquitoes because it dilutes large single-species populations.
He cited the example of areas with higher bird diversity showing lower rates of West Nile virus infections because mosquitoes, as a vector of infection, were less likely to find suitable hosts.
“These viruses are naturally isolated away from us by ecosystems that provide a buffer zone. We’re steamrolling right through that ecological buffer,” Pan said.
“Global health crises like the Covid-19 pandemic will happen more often if we fail to protect natural ecosystems globally.”
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