Groundbreaking Roadmap for Biodiversity, Human Rights, and Health

After nearly three years of collaborative and transdisciplinary work, the article “Biodiversity, health science, and the human right to a healthy environment” has been published in The Lancet Planetary Health. This important contribution was co-authored by Liz Willetts (Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, IAI), Lora E. Fleming (University of Exeter), and Elisa Morgera, who currently serves as the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change.

The publication introduces a first-of-its-kind biodiversity–health roadmap that aligns health science with international human rights law. It calls for bridging the persistent gap between environmental and public health governance by integrating biodiversity into the realization of the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.

“This paper offers the first roadmap to help translate the obligations of public authorities into concrete action through transdisciplinary health science”, said Liz Willetts, an IAI Associate Researcher.

The roadmap is grounded in the UN Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment and provides actionable guidance to help public authorities, health professionals, and legal experts co-develop policy-relevant research and communication tools. As biodiversity loss accelerates worldwide, the authors argue that this integration is not only overdue but essential for equitable and sustainable health outcomes.

The article is freely available at https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(25)00092-0.