Protecting reduces respiratory diseases, a study has found

The study: cracking down on “slash and burn” techniques in forests decreases the concentration of particulate matter in the air and the number of hospitalizations and deaths

by Matteo Cavallito

 

Protecting rainforests contributes to improving the health of people living in their regions. That is the message from a study by the University of Bonn, Germany, and the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. Countering slash-and-burn practices, in detail, “significantly reduce the concentration of particulate matter in the air,” a statement highlights. “The number of hospital stays and deaths due to respiratory diseases thus also decreases.”

In 2019, recalls the study published in the journal Nature Communications, Earth & Environment. nearly 70,000 square kilometers of forest, an area the size of Bavaria, were burned in the Amazon region. Smoke generated during fires, the researchers recall, is a major trigger of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

The survey of the Amazon region

“The conversion of tropical forests in the Amazon region for agriculture and other land uses is associated with health risks linked, for example, to air and water pollution from forest fires and agrochemical use,” the study points out. However, “Several conservation policies introduced in the 2000s aimed at reducing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.”

The research looks at interventions implemented after 2006 beginning with the so-called Soy Moratorium, which committed global trading companies to stop buying the raw material grown in newly deforested areas.

By comparing areas subject to the moratorium with neighboring areas, researchers were able to identify the effects of forest protection efforts on public health. Noting, most notably, the decline in wildfires and, by extension, other related phenomena.

Preventing forest fires saves 680 lives a year

In fact, the reduction in the incidence of burning, the study notes, has resulted in lower air concentrations of fine particulate matter, or the “main vector for adverse health effects of fire smoke.” This phenomenon “leads to a reduction in the hospitalization and death prevalence rate due to respiratory health problems and other health benefits for the local population.”

As a result of all this, the researchers then estimated that about 680 deaths were avoided among the resident population as a result of reduced air pollution.

According to Jan Börner, a researcher at the University of Bonn and co-author of the study, two messages emerge from the research: “Namely, firstly, that the destruction of the rainforest can be successfully curbed,” he explains. “And, secondly, that this benefits not only the diversity of species and the global climate but also very specifically and very quickly the local population. This is an aspect that is still given too little consideration when assessing protective measures.”

The link between healthy soil and biodiversity

The research adds new knowledge on the issue of the nexus between environmental protection and the protection of human health. This has been already called into question by the World Health Organization (WHO), which, in particular, emphasized that “Ecosystem restoration can significantly contribute to supporting health and well-being by helping to regulate infectious diseases, supporting food and nutrition security, and contributing to climate mitigation and adaptation.”

The link between soil and health is a topic of growing interest. The World Economic Forum (WEF) had also previously spoken on the topic, highlighting the risks associated with the loss of biodiversity and, more specifically, the decrease in soil microbial diversity.

“Contact with a diverse range of microbes in our environment is also essential for bolstering our immune system,” the WEF noted. “Microbes found in environments closer to the ones we evolved in, such as woodlands and grasslands, are called “old friend” microbes by some microbiologists. That’s because they play a major role in ‘educating’ our immune systems.”