We,

• Recognize that 75% of emerging infectious diseases are of zoonotic origin and that emerging disease events are accelerating, largely due to human impacts on nature;
• Recognize the complexity of the relationships between land use, food systems and environmental, human and animal health, and specifically the need to unravel the link between biodiversity pressures and emerging infectious diseases;
• Note that preparedness strategies are not primarily designed to prevent pandemics;
• Emphasize the need to mitigate the risks of emergence of zoonotic diseases;
• Emphasize the need to prevent pandemics before they emerge, while ensuring food and nutritional security, adapting to climate change, preserving biodiversity and natural resources and alleviating poverty;
• Emphasize the need to improve knowledge and to develop reliable tools, by involving all the interested and concerned stakeholders;
• Recognize the need for efficient early warning systems for detection and rapid actions to counteract the emergence from local to global scale;
• Emphasize the need for robust and participatory emergence risk monitoring supported by research and involving all stakeholders, research and field actors, policy makers, public society through a “One health” approach;
• Underline the role of local communities and of all envi- ronmental, animal and human health stakeholders in reducing emergence risks of infectious diseases through their awareness and commitment;
• Call for a concerted action and an efficient use of existing financial mechanisms and resources to scale up and integrate research, innovation, capacity building and operational actions targeting risk reduction of zoonotic disease emergence;

We welcome the “PREZODE” (Preventing the Emergence of Zoonotic Diseases) Initiative.

We recognize, each with regard to our missions and mandates, the need to:

• Develop and foster the application of guidelines aligned with Agenda 2030 and supporting zoonotic disease emer- gence risk mitigation in order to strengthen public policies, international cooperation and private sector actions;
• Foster cooperation between and with existing One- Health or related initiatives, and in particular with the One Health High Level Expert Panel, and raise awareness on the importance of the One Health approach;
• Encourage the launch of research, innovation, education and development programs to improve and better share knowledge on the risks of emergence and spread of zoonotic diseases and on surveillance and mitigation actions;
• Capitalize on feedback from the management of pre- vious epidemic events to strengthen new preparedness protocols;
• Assess ex-ante the impacts of agricultural, land use and infrastructure development projects on the risks of diseases emergence for humans, livestock and wildlife;
• Develop prevention strategies with stakeholders, in parti- cular local communities and decision-makers, through a bottom up approach;
• Promote sustainable agriculture, food systems and landscape management, that respect the One Health approach and contribute to strengthening biodiversity;
• Improve the monitoring and early assessment systems of threats at the human-wildlife-environmental interfaces;
• Support participatory approaches to ensure empower- ment of the communities in developing innovative solutions and their adoption for the benefit of all;
• Ensure sustainability of the actions in particular through long term capacity building with training of trainers and education programs;
• Share our projects, actions, experiences and results, through a common platform and organize regular meetings for discussion and capitalization with the support of the international scientific community;
• Promote best practices in public-private partnerships and inter-sectorial collaborations within an integrated One Health approach.

We express our interest to contribute to the development of PREZODE through an inclusive and transparent process guaranteeing the equitable participation of the different actors and taking into consideration the need to collaborate with other existing initiatives by seeking synergies on the issue of the prevention of zoonotic diseases emergence.

PREZODE - Declaration of Intent - Sep 2023.pdf