Biodiversity, the Environment, Animal Welfare and Human Well-being 83
to human well-being in terms of increased provision of food from fishing.
However, the longer-term picture includes changes from highly diverse,
complex and robust coastal ecosystems into systems of reduced diversity
and resilience (MA Board, 2005) as a result of overfishing, affecting local
communities and resulting in lower well-being for all.
Pollution is another global issue that affects animals, humans and the
environment. It impacts on everyone’s health and well-being. Pollution takes
many forms, some more easily noticed than others, ranging from plastic and
micropollutants in rivers and oceans to poor air quality or industrial waste,
litter, light, heat or noise (UN, 2017). The United Nations has identified
that interventions to address pollution need to go beyond the environmental
sector to include other relevant areas such as agriculture, industry, urban,
transport, energy and health (UN, 2017).
Several collaborative multistakeholder platforms are now addressing
food security and agriculture issues, for example, and these cover many of
the aspects captured in this section. However, it is important for these to
interconnect with professionals engaged in animal welfare, conservation,
biodiversity, human well-being and ecosystems to ensure an inclusive One
Welfare approach.
