Sustainability | ~5 min read
Why biodiversity matters for health - and investment
Biodiversity loss is increasingly a health crisis – and one with real economic consequences. From food systems to infectious disease risk, the links are becoming harder to ignore.
On the International Day for Biological Diversity, understanding how these dynamics feed through to investments is more urgent than ever.
As biodiversity declines, the risks to human health – and the economy – are rising. The One Health concept provides a framework to understand these risks. Developed in the early 2000s and backed by organisations such as the World Health Organization, it highlights the deep interconnections between human, animal and environmental health – and the need for coordinated action across them. One Health promotes cross-sector collaboration to strengthen food and health systems and tackle challenges such as infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance.
Biodiversity disruption
Health has typically been poorly integrated into environmental policies, but in 2022 the Global Action Plan on Biodiversity and Health – agreed by 195 countries and the EU – recognised biodiversity as foundational for human health, calling for a stronger One Health approach.1
Degraded ecosystems and heightened disease risks are undermining food systems and eroding essential ecosystem services, contributing to an estimated 15 million deaths and USD 4 trillion in economic losses since 2023.2 Microplastic pollution is one example, disrupting ecosystems and entering the food chain and threatening food safety, health and livelihoods.
Connectivity is key
A functioning One Health framework requires structural changes across fragmented health, environmental and animal systems. Barriers exist, including limited data sharing, fragmented surveillance systems and weak coordination. Effective prevention and policy alignment are further constrained by poor understanding of disease spread from animals to humans (known as zoonotic spillovers), often driven by land-use change, wildlife trade and urbanisation. The current outbreaks of Hantavirus in Europe and Ebola in West Africa are stark reminders of this.
We see an urgent need for standardised risk assessment frameworks and practical tools.
Investment implications
One Health provides a strategic framework to identify and mitigate systemic risks, helping guide capital towards resilience. Its greatest value lies in prevention, which can be difficult to quantify. The World Bank estimates potential global benefits from a unified approach of USD 37 billion annually, compared with prevention costs of USD 3.4 billion.3
This is an opportunity to strengthen global resilience and support more equitable economic systems. We are committed to integrating biodiversity into our investment processes to support long-term value creation.
Read more about biodiversity loss: Nature risk is now financial risk | AllianzGI
1 UN Environment Programme, Convention on Biological Diversity, October 2024
2 World Health Organization, One Health factsheet, May 2026
3 The World Bank Group, One Health
