Giving Compass' Take:

• Karl Bates unpacks research that reveals how conservation policies can prevent future pandemics caused by animal-to-human virus transmission.

• What role can you play in supporting shifts toward conservation? 

• Read about the components of building a social movement for conservation. 

Governments may be able to prevent future pandemics by investing as little as $22 billion a year in programs to curb wildlife trafficking and stem the destruction of tropical forests, a new analysis shows.

Compared to the $2.6 trillion already lost to COVID-19, and the more than 600,000 deaths the virus has caused so far, that annual investment represents an exceptional value, the experts argue.

They estimate that the total cost, in current dollars, of the preventive measures they recommend over the next 10 years is only about 2% of the estimated eventual costs of the COVID-19 pandemic, which some economists predict could reach $10 to $20 trillion.

In their paper, the experts note that COVID-19, SARS, HIV, Ebola, and other viruses that have spread from animal hosts to humans over the last century have been linked to close contact between people and live primates, bats, or other wildlife. In some cases, the animals have infected humans directly; in others, the route of infection has been indirect, through livestock the humans ate.

The paper’s authors also note that locations near the edges of tropical forests where more than 25% of the original forest has been lost tend to be hotbeds for these animal-to-human virus transmissions.

For example, bats, which are the probable reservoirs of Ebola, SARS, and the virus behind COVID-19, are more likely to feed near human settlements when their original forest habitats are disturbed by road building, logging, or other human activities. This has been a key factor in the emergence of viral outbreaks in West Africa, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Australia, says Andrew Dobson, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University.

Read the full article about conservation policy and pandemics by Karl Bates at Futurity.