Huge investments in nature will stop another pandemic

Countries need to invest billions of pesos in protecting and caring for nature to avoid another global pandemic, according to biodiversity financing strategist BIOFIN Philippines, adding that these investments can also help generate revenues.

The Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), a project of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), urged the government and private agencies to “invest in nature” that in turn can generate $350 billion in revenues per year globally in terms of improved ecosystem services while contributing to the elimination of future pandemics.

BIOFIN is urging policymakers to contribute in financing the 13-year Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, which started in 2015 to run until 2028, costing P24 billion yearly.

Angelique Ogena of BIOFIN said, “Protecting the world’s land and ocean resources outweighs financial costs at least five-to-one. Globally, this can lead to $250 billion in increased yearly economic output, plus $350 billion in improved ecosystem services.”

Investing in nature will also promote human health. When watersheds and forests – habitat of wild animals — are destroyed, direct interaction between humans and the wildlife that carries diseases unknown to man becomes imminent.

“75 percent of emerging infectious diseases in humans originates from zoonotic pathogens. That is enough reason to revisit and reprioritize resources toward the improvement of natural resources management especially in protected areas to prevent future pandemics,” Ogena said.

BIOFIN is urging for a Presidential Proclamation to declare June 2021 to May 2022 as “Year of the Protected Areas” and June of each year as “Month of Protected Areas”.

Both are in support of Republic Act 11038 or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Law (NIPAS).

“Nature is a reliable provider of our daily basic needs such as clean water for drinking, air for breathing, and other resources such as medicine, jobs and climate change mitigation,” added Ogena.

“If we zoom in to the ecosystem and species levels, national parks are at the top tier when it comes to natural wealth and therefore the most in need of protection and sustainable management,” she added.

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, a global network of protected areas can store at least 15% of terrestrial carbon, increasing the value of conserving protected areas.