RESTOREID: can forest restoration protect us from animal-borne infectious disease?
Project overview
Participants
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Global goals
- 3. Good health and well-being
- 11. Sustainable cities and communities
- 12. Responsible consumption and production
- 15. Life on land
- 17. Partnerships for the goals
Short summary
It’s well-known that forest loss and degradation can have negative impacts on a range of ecosystem services, contributing to recent increases in zoonotic (animal-borne) infectious disease worldwide. Yet, we still lack knowledge on the opposite association – how zoonotic disease risks are affected by forest restoration. This knowledge gap is addressed by a new international study.
As part of a collaboration between partners in twelve countries across temperate Europe and tropical Africa, researchers from SLU are collecting data from forests in Hälsingland on small mammals, their pathogens and overall biodiversity under different management regimes.
By revealing how forest management and restoration shape the ecological conditions for zoonotic pathogens, our project will help clarify whether restoration reduces – or in some cases increases – the risk of disease spill-over from animals to humans. These insights will help guide future habitat restoration initiatives and efforts to reduce public health risks.
Specific research areas:
- The local community composition of pathogens and their hosts
- Associations between biodiversity, small-mammal communities and pathogen prevalence
- Evaluation of different methods for estimating biodiversity
Read more about Restoreid and the researchers' international collaboration here.
