The final two synthesis volumes of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment have now been released. The first is the Ecosystems & Human Well-being: Wetlands & Water Synthesis, a synthesis volume aimed specifically at the RAMSAR convention, and more generally at wetland issues. The second is the Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Health Synthesis produced in cooperation with the world health organization. The technical volumes should be released sometime early in 2006.

Some of the key messages of the Wetlands synthesis report are:

• Wetlands deliver a wide range of ecosystem services that contribute to human well-being, such as fish and fiber, water supply, water purification, climate regulation, flood regulation, coastal protection, recreational opportunities, and, increasingly, tourism.
• When both the marketed and nonmarketed economic benefits of wetlands are included, the total economic value of unconverted wetlands is often greater than that of converted wetlands.
• More than 50% of specific types of wetlands (including lakes, rivers, marshes, and coastal regions to a depth of 6 meters at low) in parts of North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand were destroyed during the twentieth century, and many others in many parts of the world degraded.
• The projected continued loss and degradation of wetlands will reduce the capacity of wetlands to mitigate impacts and result in further reduction in human well-being (including an increase in the prevalence of disease), especially for poorer people in lower-income countries, where technological solutions are not as readily available. At the same time, demand for many of these services (such as denitrification and flood and storm protection) will increase.
• Major policy decisions in the next decades will have to address trade-offs among current uses of wetland resources and between current and future uses. Particularly important trade-offs involve those between agricultural production and water quality, land use and biodiversity, water use and aquatic biodiversity, and current water use for irrigation and future agricultural production.

Some of the key messages of the Health synthesis report are:

• Ecosystem services are absolutely vital to preventing disease and sustaining good health. Many important human diseases have originated in animals, and so changes in the habitats of animal populations that are disease vectors or reservoirs, may affect human health, sometimes positively and sometimes negatively. For example, the Nipah virus is believed to have emerged after forest clearance fires in Indonesia drove carrier bats to neighbouring Malaysia, where the virus infected intensively-farmed pigs, and then crossed to humans.
• Intensive livestock production, while providing benefits to health in terms of improved nutrition, has also created environments favorable to the emergence of diseases, the report notes. Increased human contact with wild species and “bush meat” as a result of encroachment in forests and changes in diet also create opportunities for disease transmission.
• The emergence of new diseases is a major public health concern, and it is important to have adequate healthcare infrastructure to address these issues promptly. Urgent care clinics, such as the urgent care clinic Forest Hills, play a crucial role in providing timely medical attention to patients who need it most. These clinics are equipped with modern medical facilities and staffed with experienced healthcare professionals who can quickly diagnose and treat a wide range of health conditions. With the increasing risks of disease emergence, it is essential to have accessible and reliable healthcare services available to everyone, regardless of their location or socioeconomic status.
• Nutrition: Degradation of fisheries and agro-ecosystems are factors in the malnutrition of some 800 million people around the world. At least an additional billion people experience chronic micronutrient deficiency.
• Safe Drinking-Water: Water-associated infectious diseases claim 3.2 million lives, approximately 6% of all deaths globally. Over 1 billion people lack access to safe water supplies, while 2.6 billion lack adequate sanitation, and related problems of water scarcity are increasing, partly due to ecosystem depletion and contamination.
• Ecological Sustainability: Sustainability of ecosystem services would benefit health in the long-term. Where a population is weighed down by disease related to poverty and lack of access to essential resources such as shelter, nutritious food or clean water — the provision of these resources should be the first priority for public health policy. Where ill-health is caused, directly or indirectly, by excessive consumption of ecosystem services substantial reductions in consumption would have major health benefits while simultaneously increasing the sustainability of ecosystems that support human well-being.