Mission
EcoVet Global brings an intersectional lens to health and environmental problems that have reciprocal impacts on humans, animals, and ecosystems. Through collaboration with communities and cross-sectoral specialists, we develop innovative solutions to strengthen public health, animal health, and environmental health to enable communities and nature to thrive.
Vision
We envision a world where health and environmental problems are solved collaboratively, drawing on people from different sectors and backgrounds. Applying an intersectional lens and a One Health approach, the collective outputs of this unified effort will create a cascade of positive impacts on species-wide health, environmental resilience, gender equity, and biodiversity. The health and social justice impacts of environmental change would be prioritized, and all species on earth would be considered integral to creating balanced, sustainable solutions.
EcoVet Global’s work is rooted in One Health
One Health is an approach that recognizes vital connections between species-wide health, environmental change, and global development. Rooted in collaboration, One Health relies on cross-sectoral partnerships (community to government level) to implement actionable strategies to address the intersectional challenges of climate change, zoonotic pandemics, biodiversity loss, and social inequities. One Health is endorsed by the World Health Organization, the United Nations, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Organization for Animal Health as an effective framework to address the interlinked health, environmental, and social justice problems we face today.
Why One Health?
As landscapes and climate conditions have shifted in the face of human development and globalization, the relationship between humans, animals, and natural resources is growing increasingly more complex and interlinked. Amid these changes, new health problems have surfaced in humans and animals that reflect the intersectionality of health, global change, and the environment. COVID-19 is a prime illustration of this complex interplay of health, globalization, and environmental breakdown in action. Particularly in underserved communities, chronic and emergent health issues frequently stem from a variety of causes including non-existent or ineffective health care delivery systems, broad social inequities, biodiversity loss, climate change, and resource degradation. These same underlying factors extend to animal health as well. Since the contributing causes are multiple and overlapping, interventions must be broad based and holistic. As epidemiologists, veterinarians, and conservation practitioners, the EcoVet Global Team is accustomed to working across species and landscapes, so a One Health approach to address the planet's health woes makes sense. In working toward this goal, we leverage opportunities to collaborate with cross sectoral teams and stakeholders of diverse backgrounds to determine the underlying societal and environmental drivers of these emerging health trends, with careful attention given to areas where humans, domestic animals, and wildlife live in close proximity.
To learn more about how animal health overlaps with human health, conservation, and community development, read more under Healthy Animals, Healthy Planet.
Ecovet Global is a fiscally sponsored project of Earth Island Institute (EII), a 501(c)(3) organization. EII has received the highest rating from Charity Navigator — America’s largest independent evaluator of non-profit organizations — for our efficient use of funds.