This webinar will present One Health as an integrated and practical framework that connects biodiversity conservation, ecosystem integrity, climate resilience, and animal and human wellbeing. Through global and regional examples, experts will demonstrate how One Health principles are being operationalized across different landscapes and programmes, and will highlight practical lessons, enabling conditions, and opportunities for scaling One Health within IUCN programmes, partnerships, and policy engagement.
Content: The interconnections between ecosystem health (including biodiversity and ecosystem integrity), animal health, and human health and wellbeing are becoming increasingly evident. Healthy ecosystems underpin water and food security, sustainable livelihoods, climate resilience, and mental and physical health, while also helping to reduce environmental health risks. Conversely, ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss are increasingly contributing to the emergence and spread of infectious diseases, reduced ecosystem services, food and water insecurity, and other threats to human wellbeing worldwide.
Recognizing these links, global frameworks such as the Convention on Biological Diversity's Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) Global Action Plan on Biodiversity and Health, as well as IUCN's Nature 2030 programme, emphasize the need for integrated approaches such as One Health that bridge environmental, animal, and human health sectors. However, despite broad international recognition and growing policy commitments, translating One Health from concept to practice remains a significant challenge. Implementation often faces barriers including fragmented governance, limited cross-sector collaboration, insufficient financing, and a lack of practical examples demonstrating how One Health can be operationalized across different conservation and development contexts.
This webinar will address this gap by showcasing practical examples of how One Health approaches are already being implemented across conservation, ecosystem management, and community resilience initiatives. Speakers will share experiences, lessons learned, and innovative approaches that demonstrate how integrating biodiversity, ecosystem, animal, and human health considerations can strengthen conservation outcomes while delivering broader societal benefits. The webinar will also provide a platform for exchange, collaboration, and reflection on the opportunities, challenges, and enabling conditions needed to strengthen and scale One Health implementation across IUCN's work and its wider network of partners.