New directions in conservation medicine: applied cases of ecological health

Abstract

Th e idea of ecohealth, a term mainly used as a contrac-tion for either “ecology and health” or “ecosystem approach to human health,” was fi rst popularized in international development circles by the Canadian government’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC). As described in Lebel’s ( 2003 ) Health: an Ecosystem Approach , IDRC proposed eco-health as a new transdisciplinary framework that “implies an inclusive vision of ecosystem-related health problems.” In 2002 a group assembled (includ-ing the authors) at a conference titled “Healthy Ecosystems, Healthy People” held in Washington, DC, initiated the process that led to the establishment of the journal