Ecohealth Conferences: Events Highlights

From August 11-15, 2014, ecohealth researchers and practitioners from around the world will convene in Montréal for the Ecohealth 2014 Conference. 

Ecohealth 2014 marks the 5th biennial conference of the International Association for Ecology and Health (IAEH). The last conference was held in Kunming in 2012. In the two years since then, the growth of the ecohealth community has been apparent at regional gatherings and conferences. 

IDRC looks forward to the exciting developments that will emerge from Ecohealth 2014. In the meantime, here are some of the highlights from recent regional conferences:

Prince Mahidol Award Conference 2013 – Bangkok, Thailand

The Prince Mahidol Award Conference is linked to the annual Prince Mahidol Award for outstanding global achievements in medicine and public health. Over the course of the conference, the ecohealth network-building movement flourished. Individual research teams began to develop relationships and connections that will foster sharing collaboration within the ecohealth community both in Southeast Asia and internationally. 

Ecohealth Africa 2013 – Grand-Bassam, Côte d’Ivoire

In 2013, the first African regional conference of the IAEH was convened in Grand-Bassam, bringing together 200 participants from 35 countries;  two-thirds were from sub-Saharan Africa. Sixty-five African PhD students also attended. 

Conference participants drafted the Declaration of Grand-Bassam in response to the Libreville Declaration on Health and Environment in Africa (PDF, 347KB). The declaration emphasizes the importance of strengthening relationships between political decision-makers and ecohealth researchers in order to address regional and global healthchallenges. 

Ecohealth 2012 - Kunming, China

The Ecohealth 2012 Conference played host to important discussions about Ecohealth field-building. The International Discussion Forum at EcoHealth 2012 was the catalyst for revisions to the Kunming Position Statement, which was published in the Ecohealth Journal. The Kunming Statement led to a position paper that was then submitted to the Post-2015 Development Agenda Thematic Discussions around Health.