Ecosystem Approaches to Health and Well‐Being: Navigating Complexity, Promoting Health in Social–Ecological Systems

Martin J. Bunch

Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 2016, vol. 33, issue 5, 614-632

Abstract: Ecosystem Approaches to Health (also known as ‘ecohealth’) link population or community health and well‐being with the environment and sustainable development. The approach is based on the understanding that health outcomes emerge from interrelationships within social–ecological systems. The ecohealth approach rests on principles of transdisciplinarity, participation, gender and social equity, systems thinking, sustainability, and research‐to‐action. This paper introduces the emerging field of ecohealth as an approach rooted in systems thinking. The approach will be illustrated with three case studies; an application to interrelated crises of poverty, environmental degradation, and zoonotic disease along the Bishnumati River in Kathmandu, Nepal; improvement of community well‐being in a low‐income informal settlement in Chennai, India; and an ongoing project with the Credit Valley Conservation Authority in Southern Ontario, Canada that is oriented to identifying and communicating relationships among ecosystem services and human health so as to demonstrate the importance of watershed management. These projects are typical of the Anthropocene, in which human systems impact the natural systems upon which they depend. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 2016
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