Forests Provide Untapped Resources for Human Health    Vienna/Vantaa - "It is not commonly understood how much - even in our
   hypermodern urban age - human health and well-being are influenced by
   forests and trees", said Professor Hannu Raitio, coordinator of the
   [3]IUFRO Task Force on Forests and Human Health of the Vienna-based
   International Union of Forest Research Organizations, and Director
   General of the [4]Finnish Forest Research Institute Metla in Vantaa,
   prior to World Health Day on 7 April. Research shows that there is a
   huge untapped economic and health potential in forest biodiversity.
   "Preserving biodiversity attains an autonomous value - independent of
   any uses known at the present time", said Professor Raitio.
   Loss of species and decrease in biodiversity always imply a potential
   loss of health-related ecosystem services and genetic resources. The
   conservation of the earth's biological diversity, of which a large part
   is found in forests, is increasingly recognized as an important goal.
   Preserving biodiversity is rational also from an economic point of
   view. As noted in FAO's State of the World's Forests 2011, many
   top-selling herbal products such as goji and echinacea are derived from
   forests, and the collection and trade of raw materials continues to
   significantly affect forest economies. Probably more than half of the
   most prescribed medicines - also in the Western pharmacopoeia - are
   based on chemical compounds found in natural organisms. "Even if the
   drug is produced synthetically, it is often first found in nature, or
   it may be a modification of some naturally occurring compound. We start
   to realize that every organism is a potent bioreactor with unique
   capabilities", stated Professor Raitio.
   Medical treasures waiting to be discovered
   Currently only less than one per cent of all known plants are
   thoroughly analyzed for pharmaceuticals and with microbes, fungi and
   animals the percentage is even smaller. Only a small fraction of all
   existing species of organisms have been discovered and described so
   far. Moreover, all higher plants are hosts to one or more endophytic
   microbes, organisms residing in tissues between or among living plant
   cells. Of the estimated 500,000 plant species living on the planet,
   only a handful has had their endophytic microflora thoroughly studied.

   "There are medical treasures waiting to be discovered in forest plants
   literally everywhere. For example, we recently began a study on the
   microflora of the root system of the common Scots Pine, Pinus
   sylvestris", informed Professor Raitio: "We wanted to see what kind of
   chemical substances can be found in the microscopic fungi that are
   living symbiotically with the tree, and test them against the
   age-related eye disease (AREDS), which is a major cause of vision loss
   in people of advanced age all over the world. We thought that in a few
   years we may find a substance that could be of potential use, but only
   after a few months of research we already had our first candidate. We
   are now cooperating with medical doctors to develop a medicine of it."
   Traditional medicine also greatly relies on forest resources, for
   example in the treatment of malaria. Most of the hundreds of millions
   of cases of malaria each year are in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is
   the second highest cause of death from infectious disease. Poor
   communities have limited access to modern drugs, with the majority
   relying on traditional medicine in treating malaria. The World
   Agroforestry Centre recently published a guide entitled  'Common
   Antimalarial Trees and Shrubs of East Africa', which describes 22
   species of trees and shrubs that are used as antimalarial treatments in
   East Africa by traditional medical practitioners and rural communities.
   "These species have great potential for further study and development
   as readily available alternative treatments for the curse of malaria,"
   said Najma Dharani, the main author of the book.
   Sustainable management of forests to be key
   Forests support the livelihoods of millions of people by providing
   food, water, fuel, protection against natural hazards etc., and offer a
   range of health-related goods and services, from medicinal compounds to
   the support of our psychological capacity and mental health. The key to
   preserve these ecosystem services is sustainable forest management
   (SFM), aiming at a balance between society's increasing demands for
   forest products and benefits, and the preservation of forest health and
   diversity. This balance is critical to the survival of forests and the
   health of people depending on forests. "These people do not only
   include the forest-dwelling native tribes in various corners of the
   world, but every one of us, wherever we live, and whatever is our
   industrial or economic level. This is the most important message for us
   all on the World Health Day and in the United Nation's [5]International
   Year of Forests 2011", said Professor Raitio.
   The international group of scientists of the interdisciplinary IUFRO
   Task Force recently suggested taking into account human health aspects
   in all forest management activities systematically. This could be done
   through applying the [6]Health Impact Assessment (HIA), a program which
   is promoted actively by the [7]World Health Organization (WHO) and is
   to date mainly being used in urban planning, to forest-related issues.
   For this purpose, a set of forest-related human health indicators could
   be developed and included in public health reports in a similar way as
   they are often included in reports on water, energy, mining,
   biodiversity and agriculture.
   For more information:
   Gerda Wolfrum, wolfrum(at)iufro.org, [8]International Union of Forest
   Research Organizations (IUFRO)
   [9]IUFRO Task Force on Forests and Human Health