AHEAD: Animal & Human Health for the Environment And Development

See www.wcs-ahead.org for more information. In 2003, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and a range of partners helped to start AHEAD (Animal Health for the Environment And Development) in recognition of the importance of animal health to both conservation and development interests. Around the world, domestic and wild animals are coming into ever-more-intimate contact, and without adequate scientific knowledge and planning, the consequences can be detrimental on one or both sides of the proverbial fence. But armed with the tools that the health sciences provide, conservation and development objectives have a much greater chance of being realized -- particularly at the critical wildlife/livestock interface, where conservation and agricultural interests meet head-on. The AHEAD program catalyzes work focused on several themes of critical importance to the future of animal agriculture, human health, and wildlife health (including zoonoses, competition over grazing and water resources, disease mitigation, local and global food security, and other potential sources of conflict related to land-use decision-making in the face of resource constraints). To date, neither nongovernmental organizations nor the aid community nor academia have holistically addressed the landscape-level nexus represented by the triangle of wildlife health, domestic animal health, and human health and livelihoods as underpinned by environmental stewardship. AHEAD, recently renamed Animal & Human Health for the Environment And Development to more explicitly capture the central human dimensions of the work, is a convening, facilitative mechanism, working to create enabling environments that allow different and often competing sectors to literally come to the same table and find collaborative ways forward to address challenges at the interface of wildlife health, livestock health, and human health and livelihoods. We convene stakeholders, help delineate conceptual frameworks to underpin planning, management and research, and provide technical support and resources for projects stakeholders identify as priorities. AHEAD recognizes the need to look at health and disease not in isolation but within a given region's socioeconomic and environmental context.

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People & Blogs

Tags:

• wildlife
• health
• conservation
• livestock
• domestic
• animal
• interface
• public
• development
• disease