Page - 316 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

316 • Alignment of indicators, joint metrics and reporting for health, climate change adaptation and biodiversity is needed to work effectively across different sectors. • Joint collaborative working and governance is needed to put policy agendas into practice and foster implementation across sectors. 14.1 Introduction Biodiversity forms the foundation of life on Earth and human health, as it underpins the functioning of ecosystems and associated ecosystem services (Cardinale et  al. 2012). We depend on the contributions from nature to people (Díaz et  al. 2018) for providing our food and fresh water, regulating climate, preventing floods and dis- ease, as well as providing recreational benefits and aesthetic and spiritual enrich- ment (see also Irvine et  al. Chap. 10, this volume). Biodiversity contributes to both traditional and modern medicines and supports local livelihoods and economic development (Romanelli et  al. 2015). Because of these fundamental linkages between biodiversity and human health, it is surprising that this important cross- cutting issue made it –only in the last few years  – prominently onto the agendas of important international conventions and organisations such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the World Health Organization (WHO). Given the fact that climate change increasingly has direct and indirect effects on both biodiversity and human health, it is even more important to stress the links between the topics in order to foster nature-based solu- tions for promoting health and adapting to climate change. This chapter highlights some key policy processes to tackle the relationships between (1) biodiversity and climate change, (2) biodiversity and health, (3) climate change and health and (4) the biodiversity-climate-health nexus on the international level. The field is developing fast, and this chapter represents the status as of August 2018. The connection between biodiversity and health  – sometimes also in relation to climate change  – is also emerging in many practical regional and local initiatives, coming from both a nature conservation angle and a medical angle. (For an over- view about European Nature and Health network initiatives see Keune et  al. Chap. 15, this volume.) 14.2 Biodiversity and  Climate Change Much work has been done on the direct effects of climate change on biodiversity (e.g. changes in phenology and in species’ distribution, composition and interac- tions; see Bellard et  al. 2012; Parmesan 2006; Thomas et  al. 2004) as well as indi- rect effects of these changes on human health (Pecl et  al. 2017). But vice versa, biodiversity also affects the climate system and can also ameliorate climate change H. Korn et al.