Integrating climate action, healthcare, and biodiversity conservation in Papua New Guinea’s rainforests and beyond

The SURFACES project (funded by Sussex Sustainability Research Programme and the UK government Darwin Initiative) is providing in-community health services for the first time to remote forest communities within a catchment area of 500 km2, and has incentivised expansion of indigenous led conservation of 15,000ha of Papua New Guinea rainforest, a substantial carbon store. Beyond PNG, they are mapping similar projects worldwide and the talk will cover both the ongoing PNG work and lessons from similar projects overseas which integrate climate action, healthcare, and biodiversity conservation. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY Jo Middleton is a Research Fellow at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (Department of Primary Care and Public Health Medicine; NIHR Global Health Unit on Neglected Tropical Diseases) and University of Sussex (Life Sciences). Much of Jo’s research and teaching involves interrelated work at two very different scales, that of microscopic parasites (specifically acarines) and that of Planetary Health, an emerging field which aims to safeguard both human health and the natural systems that underpin it. Web: http://bsms.ac.uk/jo-middleton . Twitter: https://twitter.com/MedVetAcarology SESSION DETAILS From the session 'Integrated Approaches to Converging Climate and Health Crises', at the conference 'Evidence For Action: Aligning the Climate and SDG Agendas', organised by Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (https://www.sussex.ac.uk/ssrp/research/evidence-for-action). The session consisted of three speakers followed by a 45-min panel discussion with the session chair Professor Melanie Newport (https://www.bsms.ac.uk/about/contact-us/staff/professor-melanie-newport.aspx).