Natural ecosystems support our health by filtering our air, providing fresh water and food, regulating our climate and protecting against the spread of disease and pests. They also foster our psychological and spiritual wellbeing and serve as places of recreation and sources of nature-based jobs in tourism and other vocations. 

Furthermore, with up to half of all medicines used by humans derived from nature, protected ecosystems are a form of innovative capital for future medical advances. Ecosystems are the foundations of biodiversity, the infinite variation in life forms. Human resilience in the face of sudden and catastrophic shifts to the planet’s life-support systems is strengthened by this variety of life.

Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) is focussed on the complex interaction between human health and our natural environment and is therefore interested in environmental restoration and the protection of biodiversity to promote human health and social stability. A global environment that supports biodiversity is better able to support human health. This is a topic of utmost urgency, given the alarming decline in biodiversity in recent years.    

DEA’s full Biodiversity Policy