Increased incidences of diseases spread by livestock and wildlife have become major public health problems for the developing world. Has their natural regulation been affected by changes in biodiversity, climate and land use? And if so, what are there impacts on people's health and well-being? Four diseases - Lassa fever in Sierra Leone, henipaviruses in Ghana, Rift Valley Fever in Kenya and trypanosomiasis in Zambia and Zimbabwe - are being studied, with each affected in different ways by ecosystem change, and with different dependencies...
Mapping Ecosystem Services for Agricultural Improvement and Human Health in Sub-Saharan Africa
| Investigator | Professor CJ Thomas |
|---|---|
| Institution | Aberystwyth University, IBERS |
| Start Date | 1 August, 2010 |
| End Date | 31 January, 2011 |
| NERC Ref | NE/I004351/1 |
The broad remit of this proposal is the development of tools for Managing Ecosystem Services for Health and Agricultural Improvement in sub-Saharan Africa.
Within this sphere of activity, this Partnership and Project Development proposal will draw together a trans-disciplinary team capable of: quantifying and mapping the links between the ecosystem services and the health and well-being of the people who depend upon them; modelling the impacts of changes to the ecosystem upon the population dependant upon its 'services' including climate change; developing practical responses to both existing and potential problems, aimed at reducing impacts upon the ecosystem and alleviating poverty and health problems through sympathetically improved agriculture, and; delivering these tools to those responsible for formulating policy and making decisions at the African research and policy levels.
This consortium will work together to develop a full proposal along the above lines for submission under the ESPA Health Theme. The trans-disciplinary approach of this project will enable researchers from different disciplines and key actors to develop a common vision, while preserving the richness and strength of their respective areas of knowledge. By adopting this approach at the outset the research team will avoid carrying out parallel studies whose results are pooled only at the end. The integration of knowledge and the mutual adoption of a common language and common goals, will take place during the development phase, while the research problems are being defined.
