Held in Libreville (Gabon), on 1st and 2d March 2023, the One Forest Summit welcomed a session led by the PREZODE Initiative to address the link between climate change, preservation of biodiversity and prevention of zoonoses.
The One Forest Summit has been a key moment to move forward on climate action and the preservation of biodiversity, by promoting solidarity between the three major forest basins on a global scale: the Amazon Forest, the Congo basin, and the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. These forest basins play a critical role in regulating the climate by sequestering millions of tons of CO2. Their flora and fauna are home to treasures of biodiversity. And by acting as buffers between human societies and the microbial cycles of wild spaces, they play a key role in preventing the emergence of new epidemics.
Strengthening scientific cooperation
The links between biodiversity and health will be explored (through the PREZODE initiative), the traditional practices that allow the protection of endemic species, but also to improve the mapping of these areas, whose ecological wealth remains poorly known. On that perspective, the Summit will foster the strengthening of scientific cooperation between those three major basins and international expertise on the services provided by forests.
A session led by the PREZODE Initiative took place on March 1st on the topic “Fighting deforestation to protect biodiversity and prevent of zoonoses”.
An op-ed for effective measures to protect forests
On this occasion, PREZODE, together with scientists, heads of NGOs, as well as committed writers and artists from the world over, signed an op-ed calling governments and policy-makers to take effective measures to protect forests and to ensure proper and safe management. This call was published in the French newspaper Le Monde on march 1st.
Read the article : Preventing future pandemics through innovative management of tropical forests
The Summit brought together heads of state and ministers from all continents, as well as scientists, business leaders, investors, and NGOs, to address issues related to the preservation of these major forest basins, following the historic agreement reached in Montreal on the protection of biodiversity. The One Planet Summit is part of a series of high-level meetings within the framework of the One Planet Summit. The launch of the PREZODE initiative was announced during the 2021 One Planet Summit.