WITH 346 bat species, three species of pangolins, and over 2,000 migratory avian species, Southeast Asia could be a hot spot for the next pandemic, the Director of the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) warned.
ACB Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim made this remark during an online dialogue on “Emerging Disease, Wildlife Trade and Consumption: The Need for Robust Global Governance—Exploring Ways to Prevent Future Pandemics” organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature and Cornell University Tuesday night (PHL time).
Leading experts in public health and conservation, during the event, tackled ways to foster global collaboration to mitigate zoonotic disease risks and prevent future pandemics.
Lim, a former director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), delivered a brief talk on Emerging Disease, Wildlife Trade and Consumption.
Its rich biological diversity makes the Asean region vulnerable to the spillover of diseases from wildlife to domestic animals and humans. Species that have been implicated as the origins of Covid-19 and other new and emerging diseases thrive in the region.
She cited, for instance, the highly-pathogenic H5N1 influenza, which broke out in humans and domestic poultry in Southeast Asia in 2003, and has been found to occur in a number of healthy-looking wild bird species, including the tufted ducks that are present in the region.
“In 2015, my former agency and I were part of a multidisciplinary and a multi-institutional team that investigated bats as possible reservoirs of the Reston ebolavirus. We found both molecular and serologic evidence of the virus in multiple bat species,” she added.
Lim said researchers in Thailand also published a study on the presence of SARS-CoV-2-related viruses among Southeast Asian bats and pangolins.
“With 346 bat species, three species of pangolins, and over 2,000 migratory avian species, the Asean could be a hotspot for the next pandemic,” she noted.
Lim, a licensed veterinarian with expertise in zoonotic diseases, said that while pandemics may originate from animal reservoirs, the emergence is driven by anthropogenic factors which create opportunities for the transmission of a virus from wildlife to domestic animals and to humans.
Species-specific conservation
She said several key measures that could form part of the approach toward recovery and building a better and healthier future calls for the protection of wildlife species through species-specific conservation actions.
Robust mechanisms for implementing wildlife laws that address illegal and unsustainable use of wildlife at the local, national, and international levels will help reduce contact of natural hosts with multiple varieties of other species, including domestic animals and eventually—humans—in effect, lessening the opportunities for viruses to transform, she added.
Habitat conservation
Lim also highlighted the need to conserve and restore ecosystems and wildlife habitats as deforestation, habitat fragmentation, encroachment, and land-use change put great pressure on ecosystems and displace wildlife species, driving them closer to human settlements and exposing them further to poaching and man-made hazards.
“Protecting high-biodiversity areas that are likely natural habitats and home range of natural reservoirs of potentially disease-causing viruses must be part of an integrated approach to preventing future pandemics,” she said.
She said that in the Asean, there are more than 2,652 protected areas, and 50 of these have earned the distinction as Asean Heritage Parks or AHPs.
“Seven of these AHPs have cave ecosystems which serve as important bat habitats, not counting the forest areas that are roosting sites vital to sustaining bat populations. A number of AHPs have wetlands that are watering and feeding areas for migratory birds. The entire Asean region is part of the East Asian Australasian Flyway, and ensuring the health of wetland ecosystems will allow a robust and stable waterbird population to help keep viruses in check,” she said.
Indigenous people and local communities
Lim underscored the crucial role of indigenous peoples and local communities in caring for and protecting the environment.
She said their indigenous knowledge of their environment and their presence within and around the habitats makes them indispensable frontliners in safeguarding biodiversity.
“Through a connection that has been forged through time, indigenous and local knowledge systems that are built around a harmonious relationship with nature are essential in ensuring resilience and sustainability,” she said.
In the short term, economic stimulus and biodiversity-friendly livelihood programs for communities in and around protected areas and wildlife habitats, especially during this crisis, can substantially help reduce the pressure to exploit and overutilize natural resources.
Finally, Lim warned that even with the mass rollout of Covid-19 vaccination, Asean should never lose the learnings and warnings of the pandemic, saying it may not be the last.
“Our new approach must not consider this crisis as a single event but part of a recurring challenge that needs us to recognize that people, domestic animals, wildlife, and environments are interconnected,” she said.
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