Conserving Global Health: Biodiversity Protection and the Prehistory of Planetary Health

Conservation is becoming a global health strategy. There is a growing scientific consensus that protecting species and landscapes acts as a prophylactic against the emergence of new pandemics or the acceleration of climate change through the loss of carbon sinks. But is this only a recent development? How did conservation gain prominence as a measure of protecting health? How were controversies over ecological crises addressed in the past and can they help navigate the future? And how has conservation shaped the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems on local and global scales? This project will provide the first major investigation of how species, landscape, and biodiversity conservation became global health strategies, and their consequences for humans, animals, plants, and microbes in the 1890s-2020s. To do so, it will uncover the connections between conservation and zoonotic disease emergence, climate change, and the health of Indigenous communities. Coining the term "Conserving Global Health" to describe the alliance that emerged between conservation and health, this project will show how conservation theories and practices were also public/global health measures. It will thus chart the prehistory of Planetary Health, make ground-breaking contributions to medical/environmental history, and be of relevance to conservation sciences and practices.