6 April 2011: The Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) has produced a press release on forests and human health on the occasion of World Health Day, 7 April 2011. The latest in the series of monthly press releases in support of the International Year on Forests 2011, it stresses the role of forest products as mostly untapped resources for medicines for human health.

The CPF, a voluntary arrangement among 14 international organizations and secretariats with substantial programs on forests, states that a only small fraction of plants, animals, fungi and microbes in forests have been analyzed for pharmaceutical properties, and notes the importance of traditional medicines used to treat diseases such as malaria. It highlights that sustainable forest management is critical to preserving this and other vital ecosystem services.

Scientists in the Forests and Human Health Task Force of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), a CPF member, have suggested systematically taking into account human health aspects in all forest management activities, such as through applying the Health Impact Assessment to forest-related issues. [IUFRO Press Releases for International Year of Forests]