Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal, 2002
The health of ecology refers to ecosystem health—an extension of the concept of health to the eco... more The health of ecology refers to ecosystem health—an extension of the concept of health to the ecosystem level. Health is reflected in the absence of distress syndrome, and by productivity, organization and resilience that characterize sustainability in the Earth's ecosystems. Transformation of ecosystems under stress from healthy to pathological conditions is often irreversible, even when the initial stress factors are
Ecosystem approaches recognize the complexity of many contemporary public health challenges and o... more Ecosystem approaches recognize the complexity of many contemporary public health challenges and offer an alternative for dealing with problems that have proven intractable and unresponsive to conventional public health strategies. Infectious disease outbreaks are among the most dramatic aspects of systems failure, and the Canadian cases of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in Toronto, and the E. coli outbreak in Walkerton, serve as useful illustrative examples. This paper examines some of the limitations of current public health approaches, the fundamental tenets of an alternative, transdisciplinary ecosystem approach, and changes necessary for implementation, including those in philosophical approach, communications and education, and, finally, institutions and governance.
Ecosystem Health was borne of curiosity, but not idle curiosity. It was a spirited conversation i... more Ecosystem Health was borne of curiosity, but not idle curiosity. It was a spirited conversation in 1977 between an environmental statistician and a vascular surgeon with later collaboration from a fisheries ecologist that sparked the interest in the merger of ecology, medicine, and health (Rapport et al., 1979). In those heady days, the quest was almost entirely intellectual; the question being raised was: ‘‘What, if anything, might the challenges of medicine have to do with those of the environment?’’ At a fundamental level, they were both complex systems, only partially understood. Going beyond metaphor—in efforts to understand the underlying mechanisms that confer organization, resilience, and vitality—that was the challenge. Over the ensuing decades, that challenge is being met, but as always with twists and turns in the endeavour not envisioned early on. One of these twists was the formation of an International Society for Ecosystem Health, and its first meeting, the Symposium on Ecosystem Health and Medicine, held in Ottawa in June 1994. Participants came with no particular expectations, other than to share their belief in a systems approach to the world that was transdisciplinary. Most had been indoctrinated in one established field or another: medicine, public health, ecology, sociology, toxicology, epidemiology, or veterinary medicine. There might have even been a few from the arts and other fields among the more than 800 participants in this seminal event. What they had in common was a belief that their field alone was insufficient to tackle the problems of the day—the looming specter of earth failure, globally and regionally. During this same period, others were questioning the way in which human health was studied in relation to complex environmental changes. The linear models used in epidemiology and the biomedical model, focusing on disease, were proving inadequate to understand and describe the dynamic relations between ecosystem degradation and human health and well-being. Uncontrolled urbanization, global cycling of pollutants, excessive use of pesticides, transfer of hazardous technologies and processes from North to South were all taking their toll on the environment. Humans were not only the disrupters of ecosystem integrity, they were suffering the effects—but not equally! Lowerand middle-income countries were much more vulnerable to this onslaught. The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada was in the forefront of proposing an alternative and complementary model to studying the complex social, cultural, political, and economic realities of poorer countries and their impact on the environment and human health: an ecosystem approach to human heath (Forget and Lebel, 2001). As of 1996, the IDRC Ecosystem and Health Program funded and intellectually supported interdisciplinary projects based on this approach and grounded in community participation, gender considerations, and intervention strategies on local and regional scales throughout the world. The International Forum on Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health, held in Montreal, in May 2003, was a meeting of the minds. Some of the participants had attended the pioneering Symposium on Ecosystem Health and Medicine, and some of the sponsoring organizations were the same. IDRC, for example, had a prominent presence in both events, as did Environment Canada and Health Canada. In Montreal, the Quebec ministries of environment and health were present, as were international organizations, including the World Health Organization and the United Nation’s Environmental Programme, who also provided active support and input. At the Montreal Forum, the motivations of participants were not all that different—but a watershed had been crossed. This meeting took on board the philosophy of healthy ecosystems and its EcoHealth 1 (Suppl. 2), 4–7, 2004 DOI: 10.1007/s10393-004-0144-0
ABSTRACT:Ancient landscapes dominate many parts of the world and are common in Australia—do they ... more ABSTRACT:Ancient landscapes dominate many parts of the world and are common in Australia—do they have a future for continued agricultural production and the supply of ecological goods and services? The hypothesis is that old, weathered landscapes respond differently from young landscapes when subjected to intensive landuse. The major difference in response is that system function regresses or fails in old landscapes. The aging phenomenon is illustrated using data from a podzol chronosequence on coastal sand dunes at Cooloola, Queensland, Australia. The old systems here are shown to regress naturally from forest systems to health systems as access to nutrients decreases. Responses to landuse disturbances in old landscapes other than sand dunes, show analogous regressive trends to the dune landscapes, but the biophysical nature of the responses can vary. How can such trends in landscape health be measured to better link land capability with landuse? The concept of sustainability may n...
... KEY WORDS: under stress - state of environment - ecosystem pathology. Baltic Sea - Gulf of Bo... more ... KEY WORDS: under stress - state of environment - ecosystem pathology. Baltic Sea - Gulf of Bothnia - ecosystem drgradation rcosystrm t)rhaviour CONTENTS Introduction . . . . . ... Local catches of whitefish and herring have been reduced (Parmanne et al., 1986). ...
There is considerable discussion about the nature of the health metaphor as applied to ecosystems... more There is considerable discussion about the nature of the health metaphor as applied to ecosystems. One does not need to accept the analogy of ecosystem as 'organism' to reap insight into the diagnosis of ecosystem ills by applications of approaches pioneered in the health sciences. Ecosystem health can be assessed by the presence or absence of signs ecosystem distress, by direct measures of ecosystem resilience or counteractive capacity, and by evaluation of risks or threats from human activity and natural forces which may decrease the supply of ecological services. The focus of this essay is on what is and what is not implied by the ecosystem health metaphor. It also elaborates a research agenda for this emerging transdiciplinary science. One can argue that beyond the metaphor is the potential for systematic diagnosis of ecosystem ills, development of indicators of ecosystem health, development of early warning indicators of ecosystem dysfunction, development of diagnostic ...
Anthropogenic stress on the earth's ecosystems has resulted in widespread prevalence of ecosy... more Anthropogenic stress on the earth's ecosystems has resulted in widespread prevalence of ecosystem distress syndrome, a quantifiable set of signs of ecosystem degradation. At the same time, the planet is witnessing rapid declines in global cultural diversity and in the vitality of the world's cultures, which closely mirror, and are interrelated with, ecological degradation. As a consequence of this converging crisis of loss of ecosystem and cultural health, global health and sustainability are increasingly under threat. An eco‐cultural health perspective based on understanding the linkages between human activities, ecological and cultural disruption, and public health is essential for addressing these threats and achieving global sustainability.
Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal, 2002
The health of ecology refers to ecosystem health—an extension of the concept of health to the eco... more The health of ecology refers to ecosystem health—an extension of the concept of health to the ecosystem level. Health is reflected in the absence of distress syndrome, and by productivity, organization and resilience that characterize sustainability in the Earth's ecosystems. Transformation of ecosystems under stress from healthy to pathological conditions is often irreversible, even when the initial stress factors are
Ecosystem approaches recognize the complexity of many contemporary public health challenges and o... more Ecosystem approaches recognize the complexity of many contemporary public health challenges and offer an alternative for dealing with problems that have proven intractable and unresponsive to conventional public health strategies. Infectious disease outbreaks are among the most dramatic aspects of systems failure, and the Canadian cases of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in Toronto, and the E. coli outbreak in Walkerton, serve as useful illustrative examples. This paper examines some of the limitations of current public health approaches, the fundamental tenets of an alternative, transdisciplinary ecosystem approach, and changes necessary for implementation, including those in philosophical approach, communications and education, and, finally, institutions and governance.
Ecosystem Health was borne of curiosity, but not idle curiosity. It was a spirited conversation i... more Ecosystem Health was borne of curiosity, but not idle curiosity. It was a spirited conversation in 1977 between an environmental statistician and a vascular surgeon with later collaboration from a fisheries ecologist that sparked the interest in the merger of ecology, medicine, and health (Rapport et al., 1979). In those heady days, the quest was almost entirely intellectual; the question being raised was: ‘‘What, if anything, might the challenges of medicine have to do with those of the environment?’’ At a fundamental level, they were both complex systems, only partially understood. Going beyond metaphor—in efforts to understand the underlying mechanisms that confer organization, resilience, and vitality—that was the challenge. Over the ensuing decades, that challenge is being met, but as always with twists and turns in the endeavour not envisioned early on. One of these twists was the formation of an International Society for Ecosystem Health, and its first meeting, the Symposium on Ecosystem Health and Medicine, held in Ottawa in June 1994. Participants came with no particular expectations, other than to share their belief in a systems approach to the world that was transdisciplinary. Most had been indoctrinated in one established field or another: medicine, public health, ecology, sociology, toxicology, epidemiology, or veterinary medicine. There might have even been a few from the arts and other fields among the more than 800 participants in this seminal event. What they had in common was a belief that their field alone was insufficient to tackle the problems of the day—the looming specter of earth failure, globally and regionally. During this same period, others were questioning the way in which human health was studied in relation to complex environmental changes. The linear models used in epidemiology and the biomedical model, focusing on disease, were proving inadequate to understand and describe the dynamic relations between ecosystem degradation and human health and well-being. Uncontrolled urbanization, global cycling of pollutants, excessive use of pesticides, transfer of hazardous technologies and processes from North to South were all taking their toll on the environment. Humans were not only the disrupters of ecosystem integrity, they were suffering the effects—but not equally! Lowerand middle-income countries were much more vulnerable to this onslaught. The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada was in the forefront of proposing an alternative and complementary model to studying the complex social, cultural, political, and economic realities of poorer countries and their impact on the environment and human health: an ecosystem approach to human heath (Forget and Lebel, 2001). As of 1996, the IDRC Ecosystem and Health Program funded and intellectually supported interdisciplinary projects based on this approach and grounded in community participation, gender considerations, and intervention strategies on local and regional scales throughout the world. The International Forum on Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health, held in Montreal, in May 2003, was a meeting of the minds. Some of the participants had attended the pioneering Symposium on Ecosystem Health and Medicine, and some of the sponsoring organizations were the same. IDRC, for example, had a prominent presence in both events, as did Environment Canada and Health Canada. In Montreal, the Quebec ministries of environment and health were present, as were international organizations, including the World Health Organization and the United Nation’s Environmental Programme, who also provided active support and input. At the Montreal Forum, the motivations of participants were not all that different—but a watershed had been crossed. This meeting took on board the philosophy of healthy ecosystems and its EcoHealth 1 (Suppl. 2), 4–7, 2004 DOI: 10.1007/s10393-004-0144-0
ABSTRACT:Ancient landscapes dominate many parts of the world and are common in Australia—do they ... more ABSTRACT:Ancient landscapes dominate many parts of the world and are common in Australia—do they have a future for continued agricultural production and the supply of ecological goods and services? The hypothesis is that old, weathered landscapes respond differently from young landscapes when subjected to intensive landuse. The major difference in response is that system function regresses or fails in old landscapes. The aging phenomenon is illustrated using data from a podzol chronosequence on coastal sand dunes at Cooloola, Queensland, Australia. The old systems here are shown to regress naturally from forest systems to health systems as access to nutrients decreases. Responses to landuse disturbances in old landscapes other than sand dunes, show analogous regressive trends to the dune landscapes, but the biophysical nature of the responses can vary. How can such trends in landscape health be measured to better link land capability with landuse? The concept of sustainability may n...
... KEY WORDS: under stress - state of environment - ecosystem pathology. Baltic Sea - Gulf of Bo... more ... KEY WORDS: under stress - state of environment - ecosystem pathology. Baltic Sea - Gulf of Bothnia - ecosystem drgradation rcosystrm t)rhaviour CONTENTS Introduction . . . . . ... Local catches of whitefish and herring have been reduced (Parmanne et al., 1986). ...
There is considerable discussion about the nature of the health metaphor as applied to ecosystems... more There is considerable discussion about the nature of the health metaphor as applied to ecosystems. One does not need to accept the analogy of ecosystem as 'organism' to reap insight into the diagnosis of ecosystem ills by applications of approaches pioneered in the health sciences. Ecosystem health can be assessed by the presence or absence of signs ecosystem distress, by direct measures of ecosystem resilience or counteractive capacity, and by evaluation of risks or threats from human activity and natural forces which may decrease the supply of ecological services. The focus of this essay is on what is and what is not implied by the ecosystem health metaphor. It also elaborates a research agenda for this emerging transdiciplinary science. One can argue that beyond the metaphor is the potential for systematic diagnosis of ecosystem ills, development of indicators of ecosystem health, development of early warning indicators of ecosystem dysfunction, development of diagnostic ...
Anthropogenic stress on the earth's ecosystems has resulted in widespread prevalence of ecosy... more Anthropogenic stress on the earth's ecosystems has resulted in widespread prevalence of ecosystem distress syndrome, a quantifiable set of signs of ecosystem degradation. At the same time, the planet is witnessing rapid declines in global cultural diversity and in the vitality of the world's cultures, which closely mirror, and are interrelated with, ecological degradation. As a consequence of this converging crisis of loss of ecosystem and cultural health, global health and sustainability are increasingly under threat. An eco‐cultural health perspective based on understanding the linkages between human activities, ecological and cultural disruption, and public health is essential for addressing these threats and achieving global sustainability.
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Papers by David Rapport