Social-Ecological Perspectives on Health in Asia: Crafting Usable Knowledge and Linking with Action

Radical changes to the function and structure of social-ecological systems (SES) represent a growing threat to health of human and nature particularly in Asia under the pressure of accelerating entropic juggernaut in the form of climate change and capitalism. The interdependence between human health (including well-being) and ecosystem integrity is highly complex in terms of connections and feedbacks in time and space. The platforms such as Future Earth Health Knowledge-Action Network (KAN), Planetary Health, One Health, GeoHealth are based on the understanding that human health and civilization depend on flourishing natural ecosystems and the wise stewardship of SES. They will require not just more knowledge but more usable knowledge, implementation of wise policies, decisive action, and visioneering. Knowledge-making and actions in SES are continually morphing one another in relationships of co-production - a core principle of Future Earth. In this presentation, we report the lessons learned from the Future Earth East Asia International Symposium on social-ecological health in Asia (including China, India, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Philippines). Three main themes (i.e. social-ecological perspectives, crafting usable knowledge, and linking with action) are addressed in the triad framework: (1) imagination challenges (conceptual and empathy failures), (2) research and information challenges (knowledge failure), and (3) governance challenges (implementation failures). [Acknowledgment: This work was supported under the framework of international cooperation program managed by the National Research Foundation of Korea (FY2019065216)]