The world's attention may have been attuned to the wildlife trade amid the global outbreak of Covid-19, the start of which has been traced to a market selling live animals in China.
But such markets may not be the only driver of the transmission of diseases from animals to humans.
This is one reason why a coalition of environmental organisations is pushing for the United Nations to declare a healthy natural environment as a basic human right.
"We are in the grips of the twin climate and biodiversity crises, which have put over a million species at risk of extinction, and negatively impact human health," said the BirdLife International coalition, which works with local groups on conservation issues in more than 100 nations, including Singapore.
"The pandemic has its roots in habitat loss and illegal wildlife trade," the group added in a statement yesterday, the 50th anniversary of the Earth Day movement.
The coronavirus crisis has demonstrated that wildlife markets, which bring highly stressed animals in close contact with humans, facilitate the transmission of zoonotic diseases. Continued deforestation in many parts of the world is also likely to do that, said Mr Vinayagan Dharmarajah, regional director for Asia at BirdLife International.
Safeguarding a healthy, natural environment should be a fundamental human right, he added.
Yesterday, BirdLife International chief executive Patricia Zurita sent an open letter to UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres asking for a new article to be enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights: the right to a healthy natural environment.
"The health of our planet, our ecosystems, our economies, indeed ourselves, cry out now for the General Assembly to recognise our universal right to live in a healthy natural environment - guaranteed by public policies and governed by sustainability and the best scientific and traditional indigenous knowledge," she said in the letter.
Ms Zurita also urged Mr Guterres in the letter to table this discussion on the agenda of the UN General Assembly meeting in September, as part of the Summit on Biodiversity.
She said the new article should be made the UN's 31st in its declaration on human rights by December 2023. This would also coincide with the 75th anniversary of the adoption by the General Assembly of the Universal Declaration, she said.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, inked in 1948 after World War II, has 30 articles laying out the right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, among other things.
Preliminary research shows the virus causing Covid-19 is likely to have originated in bats.
As the first cases were reported at a wildlife market in China in December, it has sparked international discussions on how the trade in wild animals and their parts was facilitating the spread of zoonotic diseases.
In February, China banned all wildlife markets. But environmental groups have pointed out that the wildlife trade is just one symptom of how an ailing Earth could impact human health. But it is not just about zoonotic diseases.
Botanist Shawn Lum said failure to look after nature and the services can also lead to decreased food security, frayed social resilience, economic and political instability, and public health risks.
Dr Lum is president of the Nature Society (Singapore). It is BirdLife International's partner in Singapore, and a signatory to the open letter.
The senior lecturer at Nanyang Technological University's Asian School of the Environment cited how the rise in piracy off the Somali coast had its origins in overfishing by illegal and unregulated fishing by international vessels in Somali waters that robbed local fleets of their catch and their livelihoods.
He also said: "Increased flooding in many countries has been linked to unsustainable forest management; climate change threatens water supplies, food production, or leads to... forest loss through increased fire frequency, drought, or the spread of frost-intolerant tree pathogens in various countries."
