Vince Cinches & Shuang An (World Animal Protection)
Preventing the next pandemic requires more than stronger healthcare systems. How we use wildlife, manage land and produce food also affects the health of people, animals and ecosystems. At COP17, governments can strengthen pandemic prevention by protecting biodiversity and improving animal welfare.
Biodiversity loss and disease emergence share several drivers, including habitat destruction, land-use change and wildlife exploitation. As habitats disappear, inter-actions between people, wildlife and domestic animals change.
Capturing, confining, transporting and trading wild animals can also create conditions for pathogens to emerge and spread, particularly where animal welfare is poor. Human, animal, and ecosystem health are connected, yet much attention remains on detecting and responding to disease after it emerges.This is why One Health matters.
If we are serious about preventing pandemics, we need to address the conditions that create these risks in the first place.
The KMGBF provides opportunities to do this. Target 5 provides an opportunity to reduce the risk of pathogen spillover by using a precautionary One Health approach that integrates animal welfare. Targets 4 and 9 also offer opportunities to improve wildlife management and human-wildlife interactions, with animal welfare and precaution reflected in implementation.
The Global Action Plan on Biodiversity and Health, adopted at COP16, provides a basis for connecting these commitments with health policies. At COP17, governments should focus on putting the plan into practice, particularly by addressing wildlife exploitation, habitat destruction, and other drivers of disease emergence.
These efforts also connect with the WHO Pandemic Agreement, adopted in 2025, which recognises One Health and the importance of addressing the drivers of disease emergence at the human–animal–environment interface.
The 2026 UN General Assembly’s Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response further call for coherence and mutual support between the WHO Pandemic Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The challenge now is to turn these commitments into coordinated action, rather than treating biodiversity protection and pandemic prevention as separate agendas.
This also means recognising that One Health is about equity and social justice. A whole-of-society approach which includes community engagement, especially at the human-animal-environment interface (a frontline of disease outbreaks), is essential to equity and effective pandemic prevention.
Prevention efforts must respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, support their stewardship, empower them to identify high risks, and ensure they benefit from the solutions being developed.
Governments should therefore invest in habitat protection, stronger animal welfare measures and alternatives to wildlife exploitation, while supporting communities through just and equitable transitions.
Pandemics are not simply events we need to prepare for. We must also work to prevent them.