Grand Jet d'Or Award on Planetary Health

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted our fragility as societies in the face of zoonoses, diseases that appear in the animal world and that can spread to human beings. Biodiversity loss and fragile ecosystems are factors that worsen this risk. Pollution and climate change are already having an impact on our health. One thing is clear: our health is intrinsically linked to the health of the environment and global health must be revisited in the light of these implications. These new challenges are crucial for our common future and they question our concepts and our practices. The reflections that are taking place around the notions of “One Health” or “Planetary Health” offer new avenues that global health can no longer neglect. It is in this context that the Geneva Health Forum launched the Grand Jet d’Or de Genève Award in partnership with the AXA Research Fund in 2021.

Following a competitive selection process, the Grand Jet d'Or de Genève 2022 has been awarded to the research group " Healthy Forests, Healthy People: Health In Harmony, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Zoo New England and Partners ". This multidisciplinary and dynamic research team brings together members from the international Planetary Health NGO Health In Harmony (HIH),  Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health,  Zoo New England, and the Madagascar Health and Environmental Research (MAHERY). The team is led by Dr. Sakib Burza, Medical Director of Health In Harmony and Honorary Associate Professor of Tropical and Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicines.

This One Health project will assess the impact of community-designed forest conservation interventions on forest integrity, biodiversity, wildlife health, and, ultimately, human health over ten years. Their expectation is that the frequency and diversity of wildlife-associated pathogens detected in the human population to decrease in response to forest restoration and improved wildlife health. The project unites experts in diverse disciplines: program implementation (HIH), public health (Harvard), veterinary medicine (ZNE), disease ecology (University of Chicago), and forest ecology (Duke). Together, the researchers can investigate questions that stretch beyond each of their capacities.

Very few national governments or multilaterals invest in forest protection as an upstream solution to zoonotic spillover and disease burden. This project is one of the first attempts to fill that gap through a prospective cohort study. The results will inform how national and multilateral health stakeholders can most effectively leverage healthcare practices to protect ecosystems and prevent disease at the source.