General

Zoonotic diseases (that spread from animals to humans) disproportionately affect poor tropical communities and can lead to loss of life, impaired livelihoods, health and welfare. Forest habitats are a significant source of such diseases. For communities that depend on forests for food, fuel and income, accessing forests comes with the increased risk of being exposed to zoonotic pathogens. Although we know that zoonotic diseases are increasing globally, we still lack knowledge on how these diseases circulate between wildlife, livestock and people as they use forests, and how environmental changes like forest degradation interact with human migration, local culture and society (knowledge sharing), and policy (land tenure, disease prioritisation) to exacerbate emergence and spread. Focussing on India as a key global hotspot for endemic and emerging zoonotic diseases and bringing together a network of policy makers and practitioners from the human health, animal health and environmental sectors with experts (public and animal health, ecology, epidemiology and social science) - thereby following the One Health approach -, this project aims to reduce health, welfare and livelihood impacts of zoonotic diseases by (1) better understanding the impacts of different drivers on health outcomes and spread of zoonotic diseases (2) co-develop improved interventions, integrating traditional knowledge, with affected forest communities and, thereby building the capacity of local communities to be more resilient to zoonotic diseases. Three neglected zoonotic diseases, Leptospirosis, Kyasanur forest Disease and Scrub Typhus that are widespread across the Western Ghats forest communities and cause severe complications and death if untreated, yet have different transmission routes, will be taken as key case-studies for field research. The research underpinning these improvements will include: (1) understanding how local culture and policies, nutrition and environment factors affect community interventions, perceptions and health outcomes from zoonotic diseases. (2) investigating how different communities share knowledge on diseases and health intervention, including traditional knowledge, both with each other and with practitioners and managers, to improve communication strategies. (3) studying the role of different wildlife and livestock hosts and tick and mite vectors in transmission of disease to humans in different seasons. (4) understanding how long distance seasonal migration of pastoralists may promote resilience or increase their exposure to diseases and environmental change. (5) developing computer models and risk maps, integrating environmental and social data, for predicting the distribution and spread of diseases. (6) building capacity in research, data analysis and cross-sectoral collaboration to underpin future One Health approaches in India. Improved decision-support tools and Apps and prioritisation of traditional knowledge will help disease managers, policy makers and community workers to develop novel interventions and better target vaccination and communication efforts towards the communities that are most at risk and help managers in agriculture and environmental sectors to understand how, for these communities, disease impacts may coincide with other negative impacts of environmental change. The project platform and approach of co-developing research, training and decision support tools on zoonotic diseases with stakeholders across sectors, accounting for their needs and underlying ecological and social processes, will build significant capacity in science, policy and practitioners to respond to these emerging and endemic global threats in India and beyond.

Objectives

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.

General

enO Programme Association together with 4H Tanzania will implement a project for improving environmental awareness in the Iringa Njombe Morogoro and Ruvuma areas in Tanzania. The proposed project will raise awareness of sustainable development issues in sc hools and communities and create a road map for schools to be used around the world for planning and implementing such activities in the communities. The schools are encouraged to adopt the issues in formulating and designing their curricula content to cre ate a wider understanding of sustainable development. Tanzania is rich in natural resources but the rapid population growth and an increased need for living space and agricultural land as well as industrial activities have contributed to increase the count ry?s deforestation. Approximately 450 000ha of forest land is deforested in Tanzania annually. Deforestation is one of the contributors to for example climate change soil erosion biodiversity loss and loss of fertility in farms. Tanzania has identified tha t the lack of human capacity is hindering development. Therefore actions to address the capacity issue as well as understanding of natural resources have been identified crucial. The project aims at educating the children and youth on environmental awarene ss and sustainable development for them to understand the effects of forests and deforestation to the environment. The overall goal is to raise an environmentally conscious generation which will consider sustainable development issues in their everyday act ivities automatically whether it is in their personal life or working life. A road map for schools around the world will be designed and published. The road map can be used for introducing sustainable development and environmental issues to the public auth orities to encourage them in including them in the school curricula and extra-curricula activities. Case studies of successful sustainable development inclusions will also be presented.