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The earth is currently facing an unprecedented biodiversity loss, which is taking such proportions that it is sometimes considered to be the sixth mass extinction. Human activities are the main cause of this alarming ecological crisis and threaten this biodiversity yet essential to mankind. It is thus necessary to learn more about the different living species, in order to protect and preserve them. In particular, three key scientific fields give us a better insight on biodiversity and its characteristics: ecology, focusing on living species interacting with their environment; ethology, focusing on animal behaviour; and ecophysiology, linking changes at the physiological scale to environmental changes. Together, they allow us to work in favor of biodiversity, by giving us a better understanding of animal species and their ways of life, thus allowing us to act accordingly.La science face à l’érosion de la biodiversité.Aujourd’hui, le monde fait face à une érosion importante de sa biodiversité ; le déclin des populations animales est si important qu’il est considéré par certains comme la sixième extinction de masse de la terre. L’homme, au travers de ses actions, est la cause principale de cette crise écologique et menace une biodiversité qui lui est pourtant indispensable. Agir pour la préserver devient donc primordial et passe par une meilleure connaissance des espèces à protéger. Ainsi, la science joue un rôle essentiel, notamment via trois disciplines spécifiques : l’écologie, qui étudie les êtres vivants en relation avec leur milieu naturel, l’éthologie, axée sur le comportement animal, et l’écophysiologie, qui s’intéresse aux adaptations physiologiques des êtres vivants aux changements de leur environnement. Ensemble, celles-ci permettent d’œuvrer pour la protection de la biodiversité grâce à une meilleure compréhension des espèces animales et de leur mode de vie qui conduit à mettre en place des actions de conservation spécifiques et réfléchies.

Forests have historically supplied humans with timber, fuel, and forage. They have also provided goods and services associated with human physical, mental, social, and spiritual health. Given competing priorities for funding in healthcare, research on forests and health is important from a health economics perspective. Engagement with forests (including wilderness areas, managed production forests, and urban forests) for enhanced human health and wellbeing, and perhaps for illness prevention at a fraction of the cost of medical interventions, is a major opportunity for forest management in the 21st century. Despite this general recognition, there is a lack of information regarding public health policies and approaches that exist in relation to forests and trees. The available literature suggests that the majority in the field of public health view the natural environment with ambivalence. However, a paradigm shift is underway and there is an emerging field working with the positive impacts that trees and forests have on human health and wellbeing. While the value of forests has been noted by many health practitioners in Europe and Japan, health practitioners and the associated health industry in North America remain largely focused on treatment rather than preventative approaches. Largely as a result of advocacy from forestry and recreational organizations, this view is beginning to change, but the focus in the healthcare industry on treatment rather than prevention remains deeply entrenched.

The relations between forests and health carry ambivalent representations anchored in a long history. The dangers of deforestation and the usefulness of woodland to counter the "miasmas" and later the "pollution" are consistent with a Hippocratic approach that was reinterpreted at the end of the 18th century in the light of new knowledge in chemistry and biology. As of the 1970's, biodiversity was taken into consideration for the purposes of protecting and preserving forests seen as indispensable factors for public health. Conversely, the threats coming from tropical forests, that had been recognized for at least three centuries, and forest zoonoses that have been better identified all over the world in recent decades, are the negative side of this health-oriented representation of the role of forests. The analysis conducted in this article focuses on showing how these seemingly opposite views are actually complementary: once the mechanisms behind the diseases are better understood, the conservation of forests and their renewal become major goals for the populations concerned and for public authorities on the local, national and international scales, acting through numerous scientific studies and the establishment of public and private organisations. In this area, the role played by France is still too limited. A scrutiny of the last three centuries provides a better understanding of the essential character of social demands, cultural representations and medical expertise in the implementation of forest therapy and health-oriented environmental policies.

IIn central Tunisia, the agricultural intensification of irrigated agriculture generates local and regional environmental impacts, linked to an increased consumption of inputs and resources, including water and soil. In favor of a more sustainable agriculture and in order to inform public policies of agricultural development, it is necessary to assess the impacts of agricultural practices and water and soil conservation planning (WSCP), and this at the territory scale. The question is how to implement an environmental assessment approach in a context of 1) scarcity of reliable data including statistics, and complexity of farming practices, 2) prominence of socio-economic issues over environmental concerns 3) lack of knowledge of the perception of local actors on these issues and therefore of difficulty in identifying relevant indicators (scientific and of the stakeholders) and mobilizable. We propose an innovative approach to design and implement a participative approach involving different types of actors, to enable them to get more insights into each other's logic and perceptions of the impacts of agricultural practices and WSCP. This approach is designed to produce quality information by valuing local knowledge, share and take into account the perceptions of different stakeholders, and finally, build a consensus to contribute to the development of more effective WSCP policies. This approach has been structured in two main stages: the design of a community of practices articulated to a participatory systemic rapid diagnosis and the implementation of participatory workshops. The evaluation mobilized a dual mechanism including external observers and a satisfaction survey among participants. The survey is based on an evaluation grid of this approach, its outcomes and its short term induced effect. Sharing and taking into account the information and data collected, as well as the expertise and perceptions of the various stakeholders, has made possible to produce information deemed satisfactory or very satisfactory by all the participants. This nourished the knowledge of almost all the stakeholders and contributed to a constructive dynamic of collective learning. Our approach has contributed significantly to the evolution of perceptions and to a stronger mutual understanding between government officials and farmers. A dashboard grouping the indicators mobilized by each stakeholder was discussed and allowed to highlight convergences and differences in their analysis grids. The gradual and adaptive structuring of the approach, the choices of the stakeholders, the venues for the workshops and the use of a neutral facilitator were very important factors for the commitment and the mobilization of the stakeholders, in particular at the central scale, in this operational space for consultation on territorial issues, agricultural practices and WSCP. This work demonstrates the interest of integrating the engineering of consultation and environmental assessment within one approach and its feasibility in a difficult context for the ACES policies implementation.; En Tunisie centrale, l'intensification agricole de l’agriculture irriguée engendre des impacts environnementaux locaux et régionaux liés à une consommation accrue en intrants et ressources, dont l’eau et le sol. En faveur d'une agriculture plus durable et pour éclairer les politiques publiques de développement agricole, il est nécessaire d’évaluer les impacts des pratiques agricoles et d’aménagement de conservation des eaux et des sols (ACES), et ceci à l’échelle d’un territoire. La question est ainsi de savoir comment mettre en oeuvre une démarche d'évaluation environnementale dans un contexte 1) de rareté de données fiables y compris statistiques, et de complexité des pratiques agricoles, 2) de proéminence des questions socioéconomiques sur les préoccupations environnementales 3) de méconnaissance de la perception des acteurs locaux sur ces questions et donc de difficulté à identifier des indicateurs pertinents (sur le plan scientifique et des acteurs) et mobilisables. Nous proposons une démarche innovante de conception et mise en oeuvre d’une approche participative regroupant différents types d’acteurs, pour leur permettre d’appréhender mutuellement leurs logiques et leurs perceptions des impacts des pratiques agricoles et des ACES. Cette démarche est conçue pour produire de l’information de qualité en valorisant les savoirs locaux, partager et prendre en compte les perceptions des différents acteurs, et enfin construire des consensus pour contribuer à l’élaboration de politiques d’ACES plus efficaces. Elle a été structurée en deux grandes étapes : la conception en communauté de pratique articulée à un diagnostic rapide participatif systémique et la mise en oeuvre d’ateliers participatifs. L’évaluation a mobilisé un double dispositif comprenant des observateurs extérieurs et une enquête de satisfaction auprès des participants. Elle s’appuie sur une grille d’évaluation de cette démarche, de ses produits et des effets induits à court terme. Le partage et la prise en compte des informations et des données collectées, mais aussi des expertises et perceptions des différents acteurs, a permis de produire des informations jugées satisfaisantes ou très satisfaisantes par la totalité des participants. Cela a nourri les connaissances de la quasi-totalité des acteurs et a contribué à une dynamique constructive d’apprentissage collectif. Notre démarche a nettement contribué à l’évolution des perceptions et à une plus forte compréhension mutuelle des agents de l’administration et des agriculteurs. Un tableau de bord regroupant les indicateurs mobilisés par chaque acteur a été discuté et a permis de mettre en évidence convergences et différences dans leurs grilles d’analyse. La structuration progressive et adaptative de la démarche, les choix des acteurs, des lieux de réalisation des ateliers et le recours à un animateur neutre ont été des facteurs très importants pour l’engagement et la mobilisation des acteurs, en particulier au niveau central, dans cet espace opérationnel de concertation sur les enjeux territoriaux, les pratiques agricoles et les ACES. Ce travail démontre l’intérêt de l’intégration de l’ingénierie de la concertation et de l’évaluation environnementale au sein d’une même démarche et sa faisabilité dans un contexte difficile pour la mise en oeuvre de politiques d’ACES.

A health centre and its staff have undertaken a sustainable health approach which aims to reduce the impact of the environment on health. One of the initiatives focused on the improvement of indoor air quality. A change to practices was possible thanks to a participative approach, the support of the staff and constant communication.

Healthcare and medical-social facilities have a major responsibility within society, that of the quality of care, but also that of developing a system of sustainable and socially-responsible health. This system must meet the three pillars which constitute such an approach: economic, social and environmental sustainability. Innovation remains central to the sustainable evolution of practices and the first results are now visible.

International audience; Tropical forests have the greatest biodiversity in macroorganisms on the planet, and they are also the richest in myriads of microorganisms for which so little is known today. Over the last 50 years, many of these microbial forms, that are naturally embedded into wildlife or the environment, e.g. soil, water, have revealed to be more or less dangerous pathogens for people exposed to these new natural threats, i.e. emerging infectious diseases. Here, we discuss about the extraordinary diversity of microorganisms that are present in tropical rainforests. We first present the main global distribution patterns for microbial forms at the interface between tropical wildlife and human, and second we provide an epidemiological picture on how microbial transmission from wild animals or the environment to people operates in tropical areas through four case-studies. We examine the animal hosts or environment, and transmission mechanisms involved in spillover of zoonotic or environmentally-persistent microbes, and identify land-use changes through deforestation for the development of agriculture, and contacts with wildlife notably through bush meat hunting as major drivers that facilitate mixing of diverse animal hosts and their microbial communities with human during practices. With an increase of deforestation in the tropics and more contacts between wildlife and people, new emerging disease events with high epidemic and pandemic potential will happen, that should guide new health policies and strategies at the global scale.; Les forêts intertropicales constituent une source exceptionnelle de diversité biologique spécifique en macroorganismes, mais elles se révèlent être aussi de véritables pépinières en microorganismes. Ces 50 dernières années, certains de ces microorganismes, à l’origine présents chez des animaux forestiers ou hébergés dans l’environnement comme le sol ou l’eau, se sont dévoilés être des agents pathogènes plus ou moins sévères pour les populations humaines exposées. Dans cet article, nous discutons des interactions hôtes-microorganismes rencontrées dans les forêts primaires en les abordant tant d’un angle macroécologique que d’un point de vue plus fonctionnel, en l’illustrant de quatre exemples d’agents microbiens émergents. Plus que tout autre déterminant, les modifications d’usages des sols, notamment au travers de la déforestation pour le développement d’une agriculture, et les contacts avec les micro-organismes via la biodiversité, particulièrement lors de la pratique de chasse, exposent des individus susceptibles à ces nouveaux dangers microbiens. Avec la déforestation et des expositions croissantes avec la faune sauvage, le risque de nouvelles infections humaines devient une réalité internationale exigeant de la part des autorités publiques de mieux prendre en considération ces éléments pour la sécurité sanitaire mondiale.

The cork oak forest is an ecosystem playing a major role in Moroccan socio-economy and biodiversity conservation. However, this ecosystem is negatively impacted by extensive human- and climate-driven pressures, causing a strong decrease in its distribution and a worsening of the desertification processes. This study aims at characterising the impact of cork oak forest management on a major actor of its functioning, the ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungal community associated with Quercus suber, and the determination of EcM bio-indicators. The EcM fungal community has been monitored during spring and winter seasons in two sites of the Moroccan Mâamora forest, corresponding to a forest site either impacted by human activities or protected. A significant impact of cork oak forest management on the EcM fungal community has been revealed, with major differences during the summer season. The results confirmed the potential ecological significance of several EcM fungi (e.g., Cenococcum) in the sustainability of the cork oak forest functioning, but also the significant association of certain EcM fungi (Pachyphloeus, Russula, Tomentella) with a perturbation or a season, and consequently to the cork oak forest status or to climatic conditions, respectively. The development of study at the Mediterranean scale may improve the robustness of ecological models to predict the impact of global changes on this emblematic ecosystem of Mediterranean basin.

This study is based on scientific publications, statistics and field observations. It shows the importance of livestock in the economy and in the risk management strategies implemented by poor farming households. A comparison of livestock performance trends with the evolution of rural poverty in developing countries indicates that growth in livestock production alone is not enough to reduce rural poverty. To help reduce poverty, sustainable production should be based on productivity gains. Prerequisites for improving productivity include better public policies, enhanced research and the reduction of animal disease risk. The study draws attention to the economic, social and environmental consequences of inadequate support for animal health and production in the least developed countries, especially those of sub-Saharan Africa.

This study examines the prospects for strong growth in the supply and demand for animal products worldwide, especially in developing countries, where 80% of the world's population lives. Based on scientific publications, statistics and field observations, it reviews greenhouse gas emission levels from livestock, the ability of ruminant livestock systems to sequester carbon and the capacity of the livestock industry to meet the challenge of sustainable development and to share its benefits while minimising impacts to climate change. Special attention is paid to the situation of the 800 million livestock farmers in the world living at the extreme end of poverty. The study underlines the importance of improving livestock productivity and the interdependence of the economic, environmental and social components of sustainable development. It highlights how, in the least developed countries and most lower-middle-income countries, the pressure exerted by animal diseases hampers efforts to improve livestock productivity. Poor livestock farmers have not sufficiently benefited from development policies and need support to adopt technological advances to meet the challenges of sustainable development and poverty reduction.

Access to scientific knowledge in the context of CITES is a crucial issue. The effectiveness of the text is indeed largely based on adequate scientific knowledge of CITES species. This is a major challenge: more than 30,000 species and 178 member states are involved. The issue of expertise, however, is not really addressed by the Convention. The question was left to the consideration of the COP. Therefore, the COP has created two ad hoc scientific committees: the Plants Committee and the Animals Committee, conferring upon them an ambitious mandate. The article addresses some important issues at stake which are linked to institutional questions, as well as the mixed record after twenty-five years of practice.

The management and conservation of fish stocks require precise scientific knowledge, especially on the state of said stocks and their capacity for renewal. For instance, the setting of fishing "quotas", which consists in the determination of the quantity of fish that can be taken in a given period, cannot be done at random since these allocations represent environmental and economic stakes. Thus, decision makers logically call upon experts to adopt informed decisions. Consequently, various regional fisheries Commissions created Scientific Committees, which were associated to their work to have available knowledge on a permanent basis. And yet, the institutionalisation of scientific expertise within regional fisheries Commissions led the expert to go beyond its traditional role of knowledge provider. Facing his usual context of scientific uncertainty, the expert has indeed acquired other responsibilities. Through this "micro-legal" study--in the sense that it results from an empirical analysis of the Mediterranean context--we will try to highlight the different functions of the expert associated with the decision process in the field of the management and protection of Mediterranean fish stocks.