Deadline: July 15, 2008

From December 1st through 5th, 2008, researchers, policy makers and practitioners from around the globe will gather in Mérida, México for the International EcoHealth Forum entitled “EcoHealth: Healthy Environments, Healthy People”. To help make this a milestone event, Forum delegates are encouraged to think “outside the box”, taking on transdisciplinary approaches and bridging methodological gaps.

Researchers, policy-makers and practitioners are invited to share evidence and ideas about EcoHealth approaches. The objective is to learn about improvements in environmental/ecosystem management and community health through concrete experiences on how projects were implemented and outcomes used by policy-makers, other stakeholders, and community representatives. The Forum will provide opportunities for scientists and non-scientists alike to engage with one another about research findings, methodological advances and theoretical developments.

Oral communications, poster, video, and other media presentations, as well as complete symposia or training workshops/short courses are encouraged for submission.

Details on the various possible presentation formats and author instructions can be found in the Presentations section. The electronic abstract submission system is now live and open. For abstract submission guidelines, please go to the Abstracts section.

Visit http://www.ecohealth2008.org/sglobal/ to create a user profile for IEF 2008 and to begin the abstract submission process.

The EcoHealth Forum 2008 will include the following themes:   

1. International Development, Community Health and the Environment

Including:

• EcoHealth Approaches to Sustainable Health
• Systems-based strategies to mitigate emerging communicable diseases
• Environmental degradation, migration, mobility and human health
• Energy, global change and human health
• Environmental and ecological economics of energy and water supply and demand
• Social movements and community health in sustainable ecosystems             

2. Climate Change and EcoHealth 

Including:

• Climate and land use change modeling for disease risk assessment
• Adaptation to climate change and vulnerability in developing countries
• Natural disasters, ecosystems and health impacts.
• Climate change and emerging infectious diseases among plants, wildlife and humans                

3. Conservation Medicine

• Connections between biodiversity conservation and health
• Diseases which cause extinction or threaten endangered species
• Evaluating health vs. unhealthy ecosystems
• Protected areas and wildlife health

4. Disease Emergence and Re-emergence

Including:

• Ecosystems and disease emergence (including pandemics, vector-borne and zoonotic diseases)
• Land use change and emerging infectious diseases
• Population vulnerabilities, fragile ecosystems – social outreach  

5. Agricultural transformations, biodiversity, and human health

Including:

• Biodiversity, food, nutrition and sustainable agriculture
• Agricultural intensification, pesticides and human health
• Food security and HIV/AIDS
• Agriculture and malaria
• Common pool resources: sustaining healthy communities and livelihoods  

6. Ecosystems and environmental pollution        

Including:

• Vulnerable population in degraded ecosystems
• Economic development, ecosystem health and human health
• Mining and industries: health, environment and sustainable development
• Not enough to drink: Water scarcity and quality
• Environmental degradation and air quality  

7. EcoHealth in the Urban Environment

Including:

• Ecosystem approaches to urbanization, urban slums and human health
• Ecosystem degradation and migration in developing countries
• Growth of the informal sector and health of workers (especially in slums)
• Solid Waste Management: health risks and environmental impacts.
• Healthy cities
• Urban agriculture and livelihoods
• Changing contexts of urban-rural linkages  

8. Policies, Values and Ethical and Cultural Dimensions of Health and Environmental Rights

Including:

• The right to health
• Indigenous perspectives and knowledge on ecosystem sustainability and health
• Cultural disruption, environmental change, health and health systems
• Historical perspectives on EcoHealth
• Violence and conflict dimensions of EcoHealth
• Gender inequities and women as agents of change
• Ecosystem remediation, poverty and health- the role of social movements
• Environmental impact assessment
• Health impact assessment
• Children, health and the environment  

9. Governance for EcoHealth

Including:

• Integrating ecosystems and health systems approaches 
• Governance challenges: linking health, health systems and ecosystems in policy and decision-making
• Formal and informal institutions and policy-making: constraints and opportunities
• Economics of EcoHealth
• Evidence base of local changes on regulatory interventions
• Community empowerment impact on ecosystem and human health
• International donor and policy institutions
• Hard and soft law instruments for achieving sustainability and healthy development  

10. Building Capacity for Integrated Methods on EcoHealth

Including:

• Education, training innovations and publication of developing country researcher work.
• EcoHealth Communities of Practice and Networks
• Strengthening institutional capabilities for producing and using EcoHealth research
• Environmental and health economics in EcoHealth research
• Analytical tools for integrated approaches to health and environment
• Applying environmental epidemiology in EcoHealth: methodological challenges
• Transdisciplinary evaluation tools
• Communication methods for transdisciplinary knowledge

11. Healthy Oceans, Healthy People

Including:

• Marine diseases – health impacts in the most dominant ecosystem – the oceans
• EcoHealth at the land-sea interface: parasites, pollutants & antibiotics
• Oceans and the trickle down effect: overfishing and sustainable fisheries, achieving a balance
• Wetlands and health: the interface of land and coastal ecosystems  

Examples of symposia and workshop themes submitted so far:

• Land use change and health in Amazonia
• Lead and the environment:  An ancient problem causing re-emerging issues
• Medicinal Plants
• Rights to access of health
• Land reform and ecosystem health in Atlantic Forest in Brazil
• Workshop on How to write a scientific article: geared toward developing countries for the EcoHealth Journal