Why Deforestation is Making Us Sicker

By Barleen Grewal, Undergraduate Student

As the ancient forests fall, so do our natural barriers that keep infectious diseases at bay. Ancient old-growth forests have been providing homes to creatures, critters, flora, and fauna for generations. They have provided us with a rich diversity of plants and materials for our human endeavours and desires. They are so important for the development of human structures, and medicines and are also important for preventing the spread of infectious diseases (Zimmer, 2019). As we tear down our old-growth forests at such a fast pace, we are ruining ecosystems that have taken thousands of years to develop, and the second-growth trees cannot compete with their predecessors in all the benefits they bring to the larger ecosystem.

Animals account for approximately 60% of emerging infectious diseases, and the transmission from wildlife to humans is due to habitat loss caused by deforestation (Reuben, 2020). The effects of deforestation and the spread of infectious diseases have been seen in countries such as Indonesia, where deforestation led to the emergence of the Nipah and Lassa viruses, and the parasites that cause malaria and Lyme disease in people (Zimmer, 2019). This unintended consequence was caused by the burning of forested land in order to make space for agriculture, which decimated and damaged the fruit trees that were homes to the fruit bats. With no place to call home and no food in their resident area, they moved and settled in Malaysian orchards in their search for sustenance while bringing with them an infectious disease. Very quickly after the fruit bats relocation, pigs and pig farmers began feeling sick, probably due to eating the fruit that the fruit bats had feasted on. Thus began the first known emergence of Nipah that caused severe brain inflammation in 265 people and killed 105 people which snowballed into outbreaks all across Southeast Asia.

The math is simple, the more we degrade and damage our forests, the more emerging infectious diseases we will see popping up in people. Another example is a deadly killer to a million people each year, Malaria (Zimmer, 2019). Malaria is transported by mosquitoes carrying the Plasmodium parasites and the cases have been steadily increasing since the 1950s, alongside the increase in forest clearing happening in the Amazon forests. The rise is due to the ideal breeding grounds created by deforestation for the mosquito Anopheles darlingi, who prefer warm and partially shaded pools that are formed at the edges of roads near or through forests where the trees are not absorbing water. Much evidence shows that even a small clearing of forests is strongly related to a significant increase in malaria cases.

Almost a third of emerging infection outbreaks are caused mostly by deforestation (Zimmer, 2019). The systems in ancient forests have been co-developing for thousands of years, so viruses and parasites live quite peacefully alongside the wildlife and insects they have co-evolved with. As we are learning on Cortes Island, local ecosystems have checks and balances built within their system, and every ecological system plays a part in maintaining a balance of a larger and broader system. Deforestation has far-reaching effects that impact the health of surrounding and distant communities. Protecting our old-growth forests and preserving their ecosystem, biodiversity, and wildlife is one of the best upstream approaches to preventing new emerging infectious diseases from appearing.

On Cortes Island, much work has been and is being done to prevent excessive logging of the old-growth forests after rigorous logging was happening more than 30 years ago. The community of Cortes has come together to protect their forests as they realize the protection of the forests is the same as the protection of the health and wellbeing of the community. As a result of the community efforts, Cortes Island forests have a rich combination of scattered old-growth trees surrounded by older and newer second-growth trees. The persistence in protecting the wildlife and biodiversity of the forests in Cortes has made the island one of the most ecologically integral places in Canada. By safeguarding ecologically important systems like forests, we not only protect the health and well-being of local communities but also combat infectious diseases and ensure a sustainable future for the coming generations. We should defend our forests like our family, for they are our allies in the fight against climate change and also guardians of our health as individuals and as a whole.

References

Reuben, Aaron. "The hidden link between deforestation and deadly viruses." National Geographic, 15 July 2020, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/deforestation.

Zimmer, Katarina. “Deforestation Is Leading to More Infectious Diseases in Humans.” National Geographic, 22 Nov. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/deforestation-leading-to-more-infectious-diseases-in-humans.