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Writer's pictureJithin Vijayan

Why democratic efforts matter in managing forests and our health

Excited to share this perspective piece I have written for Current Conservation with Ashiq PP. We conceptualized this work in 2022 end, and started writing the first draft in 2023 beginning in Malayalam, our native language. An earlier version of this article appeared in 2023 March issue of the Aranyam magazine of the Kerala Forest Department, in connection with the International Day of Forests (see here).




We re-wrote the article in English, with some additional thoughts for a broader audience later, and submitted to Current Conservation. Substantial editorial inputs from the CC Team (Immense thanks to Greta, an anonymous reviewer, and whole team!) made the article strong and concise. Finally, the piece is now out in CC.


In 2023, the theme for the UN’s International Day of Forests was ‘Forests and Health’. Although not new to a lot of us, recent pandemics and the rise of emerging infectious diseases made this theme more relevant than ever before. While global schemes like One Health conceptually embrace the multifacetedness of the forest-human health relationship, local implementation of such projects face a lack of participatory approaches and awareness at the individual level. Hence, we argue here for a fresher, more democratic approach to managing forests and our health.


Happy reading!

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