The Vitality of Forests: Illustrating the Evidence Connecting Forests and Human Health

This flipbook explores the many links between forests and human health and provides recommendations for creating an enabling environment that benefits people.

For those whose lives are closely related to forest ecosystems, as well as those who live far away from forests, such as urban dwellers, forests can have important positive health effects in direct and indirect ways. The importance of forests for food security and nutrition has grown in recent years, but the role of forests in human health has not received equal attention. Nutrition and health are intrinsically linked: without good health, there is no good nutrition and vice versa. Therefore, both health and nutrition must be considered when dealing with forests. However, the benefits of forests for human health and well-being go beyond food security and nutrition.

Forest ecosystems are closely related to human health:

Forest and Weather

Forests affect climate and weather. Forests cool and moisten hot air, and warm and dry cold air to reduce the occurrence of abnormal weather. Trees provide shelter and shade for houses, crops, and rainstorms. On a macro scale, forests can absorb toxic pollutants to combat global warming and make the climate more stable. The threat of natural disasters such as hurricanes, droughts, and heatwaves increases when large tracts of forest are lost.

Forest Diversity and Health

In the forest, it is easy to see the web of life. Healthy forests are home to countless flora and fauna. Biodiversity protects human health in many ways. The bees or insects in the forest pollinate the plants, causing them to flower and bear fruit. Wasps and ants feed on plant pests, while bats and birds prey on mosquitoes that transmit malaria and yellow fever. Some forest animals either prey on mice, fleas, flies, and lice or compete with them to prevent pests from spreading diseases.
When forests are degraded, biodiversity is reduced, animals lose their habitats, food is insufficient, and the variety and number of animals are reduced. Those surviving animals were also restricted to roaming around human settlements, increasing the likelihood that animals could transmit diseases to humans. Protecting human health requires sufficient forests to maintain plant and animal diversity.

Forests, Food, Fuel, and Medicines

There are many animals and insects living in the forest, as well as a wide variety of fruits, nuts, seeds, and plant roots, which are the source of human food and medicine. When forests are degraded, humans encounter hunger, malnutrition, and disease, and those who depend on forests for their livelihoods must find alternatives. When the forest can no longer provide food and medicine for human beings, the knowledge and skills of human beings to use forest food and medicine will also disappear. So, lost forests also take away important human knowledge and traditions.
In resource-poor regions, people have to make a choice: keep forests or deforest to grow food. However, even if deforestation is an option, it is important for farmers to keep some trees. It is important to maintain a balance between cultivated land and forests where land competition with forests is prominent.

Save the Forest

We need immediate action to end deforestation, establish sustainable forest management, restore degraded forests and increase global tree cover to avoid potentially devastating consequences for the planet and people. We depend on our forests, but if we don’t act now, we risk losing them. We should all value our precious earth.

Something you can do:
• Make sure don’t buy products at the expense of forests.
• More vegetables and less meat, reducing the burden on the earth and forests.
• Reduce the use of wood-intensive products such as paper and disposable chopsticks.
• Support local communities so they can make a living without destroying forests for farmland or harvesting timber, and help protect the jungle.