Sophie Vanwambeke

Geographer and Professor

Biodiversity & Health Newsletter - June 2017. Access the full newsletter here.

1. How are you involved in Biodiversity & Health? 

I’m a geographer who investigates how human-environment interactions affect health, with a focus on infectious diseases. My main interest, if I need to pin point a key word, is land use in its broadest sense, but the topic inevitably, and luckily, brings me in contact with a broad diversity of scientific outlooks, including those focusing on biodiversity. It is an incredibly rich area of study; working with other scientist is very rewarding.

2. What do you think is important in OneHealth? 

As a geographer, being able to look at the world through multiple lenses is a natural way to do things! But still, many opportunities arise to see the value of collaborating between disciplines and across fields of actors. The field of health, through One Health, can reap so much benefit from this cross-fertilization, especially in the field of environment-related infectious diseases.

3. Where would you like OneHealth to be in a few years?

OneHealth, just like ecohealth, still bear fairly visible traces of their histories, in the sense that they still continue to mostly attract people from the disciplines, fields, and study areas in which they originated. In the future, it would be great to see more percolation between these groups, and more generally a broader outreach of these frameworks. I feel that more and more scientists and stakeholders are opening to these holistic perspectives, and it makes me hopeful that it is going in the right direction. The activities of the Community of Practice on Biodiversity and Health, and the enthusiastic and broad attendance to its activities, such as the European OneHealth/EcoHealth Workshoplast October in Brussels, are very clear and positive signals of this evolution in Belgium.