1st Edition
Human Health and Forests A Global Overview of Issues, Practice and Policy
Hundreds of millions of people live and work in forests across the world. One vital aspect of their lives, yet largely unexamined, is the challenge of protecting and enhancing the unique relationship between the health of forests and the health of people. This book, written for a broad audience, is the first comprehensive introduction to the issues surrounding the health of people living in and around forests, particularly in Asia, South America and Africa.
Part one is a set of synthesis chapters, addressing policy, public health, environmental conservation and ecological perspectives on health and forests (including women and child health, medicinal plants and viral diseases such as Ebola, SARS and Nipah Encephalitis). Part two takes a multi-lens approach to lead the reader to a more concrete and holistic understanding. It features case studies from around the world that cover important issues such as the links between HIV/AIDS and the forest sector, and between diet and health. Part three looks at the specific challenges to health care delivery in forested areas, including remoteness and the integration of traditional medicine with modern health care. The generous use of boxes with specific examples adds layers of depth to the analyses. The book concludes with a synthesis designed for use by practitioners and policymakers to work with forest dwellers to improve their health and their ecosystems.
This book is a vital addition to the knowledge base of all professionals, academics and students working on forests, natural resources management, health and development worldwide.
Published with CIFOR and People and Plants International
Foreword
1. Introduction
Carol J. Pierce Colfer
Part I: Synthetic Analyses
2. Human Health and Forests: An Overview
Colin D. Butler
3. Health, Habitats and Medicinal Plant Use
Anthony B. Cunningham, Patricia Stanley and Sarah Laird
4. The Nutritional Role of Forest Plant Foods for Rural Communities
Barbara Vinceti, Pablo Eyzaguirre and Timothy Johns
5. Wood: The Fuel that Warms You Thrice
Kirk R. Smith
6. Forest Women, Health and Childbearing
Carol J. Pierce Colfer, Richard G. Dudley and Robert Gardner
7. The Gender Agenda and Tropical Forest Diseases
Pascale Allotey, Margaret Gyapong and Carol J. Pierce Colfer
8. Bat-Borne Viral Diseases
Jean Paul Gonzalez, Meriadeg Ar Gouilh, Jean-Marc Reynes and Eric Leroy
9. Deforestation and Malaria: Revisiting the Human Ecology Perspective
Subhrendu K. Pattanayak and Junko Yasuoka
Part II: Thematic and Regional Health Slices
10. The Subversive Links between HIV/AIDS and the Forest Sector
Pascal Lopez
11. Forest Disturbance and Health Risks to the Yanomami
Gale Goodwin Gomez
12. Biodiversity, Environment and Health among Rainforest-Dwellers: An Evolutionary Perspective
Alain Froment
13. Sociocultural Dimensions of Diet and Health in Forest-Dwellers' Systems
Edmond Dounias with Carol J. Pierce Colfer
Part III: Health-care Delivery in Forests
14. National Public Health Initiatives that Integrate Traditional Medicine
Cynthia Fowler
15. Approaching Conservation through Health
Robbie Ali
16. Hidden Suffering on the Island of Siberut, West Sumatra
Gerard A. Persoon
17. Conclusions and Ways Forward
Carol J. Pierce Colfer
Afterword
Biography
Carol J. Pierce Colfer is a Senior associate in the Governance Program at CIFOR and a Visiting Fellow at the Cornell Institute for International Food, Agriculture and Development in Ithaca, New York. Her work focuses on strengthening the voices of women and men who live in and near tropical forests. She is co-editor of Collaborative Governance of Tropical Landscapes (2011).
'This book, written for a broad audience, is the first comprehensive introduction to the issues surrounding the health of people living in and around forests, particularly in Asia, South America and Africa.... a vital addition to the knowledge base of all professionals, academics and students working on forests, natural resources management, health and development world-wide' - Bois & Forets des Tropiques
'Human Health and Forests represents an ambitious attempt to shed some multidisciplinary light on an issue of significant human-environmental importance. Written by an eclectic mix of ethno- ecologists, botanists, physicians, anthropologist, virologists, and many others, this collection synthesizes what is known, and what needs to be known, about the linkages between tropical forest ecology, culture, health, and policy.' - Robert Voeks, Economic Botany
'Undergraduate students should have little difficulty grasping the content, and economic botanists and ethno botanists will find much of value in Human Health and Forests.'- Robert Voeks, Economic Botany
