A partnership agreement on health ecology
On Wednesday, October 25, the City of Montpellier, Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole, the main national organizations based in the region1, the University of Montpellier, Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 University, EPHE, Institut Agro, EID Méditerranée, and Montpellier University Hospital signed a groundbreaking partnership agreement, "Health Ecology 2023-2030," to incorporate integrated approaches to health, such as the OneHealth approach, into public policy. This agreement initiates a consortium for reflection, action, and research on shared themes to guide and enrich local authorities' environmental health policy.
This partnership agreement, which will run for seven years (2023-2030), is structured around nine areas of focus:
1. Accelerate the transfer of exposome research to better understand and therefore better prevent diseases linked to environmental damage.
2. Study the ecological resilience of ecosystems to better understand and prevent environmental degradation and the factors contributing to the emergence of infectious diseases and zoonoses.
3. Monitor the ecology and evolution of hosts and reservoirs, vectors, and pathogens to assess risks and develop prevention, surveillance, and control strategies.
4. Assess the links between management, design, and planning practices in terms of urban (re)vegetation or changes in peri-urban agroecological practices and vector-borne risks.
5. Experiment with new tools and strategies to adopt a sustainable and integrated approach to vector and vector risk management across the territory.
6. Assess, monitor, and prevent the health impacts of species that may cause damage, non-native species, invasive alien species, and plant pathogens using methods that are compatible with environmental preservation.
7. Inventory, promote, and share awareness-raising tools with all stakeholders and audiences to improve perceptions of environmental health and the prevention of risks related to the environment and biodiversity loss.
8. Accelerate the contribution of social sciences in environmental health within open science and participatory science research projects and in connection with living laboratory initiatives inviting citizens, residents, and users to become actors in research, innovation, and changes in practices.
9. Propose concrete measures to the City and Metropolitan Area of Montpellier for the development of legal frameworks for urbanization, citizenship, and urban environmental management.
- Signatories: Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole, City of Montpellier, CNRS, CIRAD, IRD, INRAE, University of Montpellier, Paul-Valéry University – Montpellier 3, EPHE, Institut Agro, EID Méditerranée, Inserm, EFS, Montpellier University Hospital ↩︎