Welcome to the PHM thematic circle on Environment and Ecosystem Health! 

PHM has worked on environment and ecosystem health for a number of years. Activism on extractivism has the most momentum, and is especially strong in the Latin and North American regions, though activists in other regions are also involved in extractivism issues and the thematic area generally. PHM has recognized and is increasingly addressing the climate crisis, and expects that work to strengthen in the immediate and foreseeable future.

The vision of the thematic area is recovery of the natural environment and ecosystem and its contribution to health.

The short-term goals relate to inclusion of more activists in the space and a more unified voice on the issues within PHM. Short-term goals for Environment and Ecosystem Health-

•Increased grassroots voice and activism within PHM to include more voices that expand vision beyond a European / WHO focus.

•Greater voice and activism among the younger generations, women, and indigenous peoples within PHM.

•Increased cohesion and ability to relate in a collective way within the thematic circle and among countries.

In this video, our coordinators explain the thematic group’s approach to the issue of Environment and Health.

If you wish to volunteer for this thematic group, contribute in anyway or have any questions, please contact one of our coordinators.  Sarah Shannon <sarahs[at]hesperian[dot]org>,  Amulya Nidhi <amulyabhai[at]gmail[dot]com>

Resources

1. To begin with, you may read the declaration by this thematic group, released after the 4th People’s Health Assembly in Dhaka, 2018. Declaration in English, Déclaration en Français.
2. Our members from the Environment and Ecosystem Health wrote an article connecting the anti extractivist movement to Right to Health and talk through examples of extractivism acitvities and resistance movements in Equador, India and Canada. Link to the article-https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-11042020000500100&lng=en&nrm=iso
3. Environmental conflicts and defenders: A global overview. Scheidel et al. July 2001.  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378020301424
4. The Message from the IPCC Report. Jayaraman and Kanitkar. August 2021. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-message-from-the-ipcc-report/article35946913.ece
5. ““Indore has become the cleanest city in the country, yet tribal people nearly 25 kilometres away are forced to drink chemically contaminated water”, PHM India Environment circle member Amulya Nidhi in the Mongabay report. Industries dump chemicals into fields, pollute Ajnar river in Madhya Pradesh. June 2022.

6. PHM members attended the  Prince Mahidol Award Conference with its theme on “Setting a new health agenda: At the nexus of climate change, environment and biodiversity”. This opinion in BMJ was written in protest to the presence of fossil fuel industry representatives in the conference plenaries. The dangers of “health washing” the fossil fuel industry, Giulia et al. 2023.