Nowadays, it is too common to overlook the fact that protecting our own health requires preserving biodiversity. We often connect wildlife to diseases like chikungunya, malaria and bird flu, and wave the specter of emerging and/or imported diseases. Yet scientific research has proven that destroying ecosystems and disturbing how life cycles function is what actually puts us most at risk.
When biodiversity is indeed a risk, but also a guarantee for our health (biodiversity and infectious diseases).
When controlling life forms can be harmful to health (resistance to antibiotics and insecticides).
When pollution is harmful to both biodiversity and to our health (issues such as endocrine disruptors and medicine being rejected into the environment).
When biodiversity heals (plants’ therapeutic value).
This book contains 20 contributions, including three interviews, with: Patrice Debré (professor of immunology, former Health Ambassador for infectious diseases), Robert Barbault (director of the MNHN, the National Natural History Museum) and Virginie Marris (philosopher at the CNRS, the National Research Science Center). It closes with a vibrant call for adequate public policy.

There is a close relationship between human health and biodiversity: when human beings upset the way the living world works, they put themselves at risk. Conversely, intelligent, sustainable use of the living world, and lives led closer to nature, contribute to better health.