Peer-reviewed Journal Articles
The Moore Center for Science at Conservation International is one of the world’s premier conservation research institutes, producing and applying groundbreaking and policy-relevant research to help decision-makers protect nature. To date, Conservation International has published more than 1,100 peer-reviewed articles, many in leading journals including Science, Nature and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
On average, each of our scientific papers is cited more than 45 times by other scholars — a rate exceeding that of any other U.S. conservation organization as well as leading universities.
Here is an archive of our most recent research.
The costs and benefits of primary prevention of zoonotic pandemics
Bernstein, Aaron S., Ando, Amy W., Loch-Temzelides, Ted, Vale, Mariana M., Li, Binbin V., Li, Hongying, Busch, Jonah, Chapman, Colin A., Kinnaird, Margaret, Nowak, Katarzyna, Castro, Marcia C., Zambrana-Torrelio, Carlos, Ahumada, Jorge A., Xiao, Lingyun, Roehrdanz, Patrick, Kaufman, Les, Hannah, Lee, Daszak, Peter, Pimm, Stuart L., Dobson, Andrew P.
Science Advances, 8
February 04, 2022
The lives lost and economic costs of viral zoonotic pandemics have steadily increased over the past century. Prominent policymakers have promoted plans that argue the best ways to address future pandemic catastrophes should entail, “detecting and containing emerging zoonotic threats.” In other words, we should take actions only after humans get sick. We sharply disagree. Humans have extensive contact with wildlife known to harbor vast numbers of viruses, many of which have not yet spilled into humans. We compute the annualized damages from emerging viral zoonoses. We explore three practical actions to minimize the impact of future pandemics: better surveillance of pathogen spillover and development of global databases of virus genomics and serology, better management of wildlife trade, and substantial reduction of deforestation. We find that these primary pandemic prevention actions cost less than 1/20th the value of lives lost each year to emerging viral zoonoses and have substantial cobenefits.
CITATION
Bernstein, A. S., Ando, A. W., Loch-Temzelides, T., Vale, M. M., Li, B. V., Li, H., Busch, J., Chapman, C. A., Kinnaird, M., Nowak, K., Castro, M. C., Zambrana-Torrelio, C., Ahumada, J. A., Xiao, L., Roehrdanz, P., Kaufman, L., Hannah, L., Daszak, P., Pimm, S. L., & Dobson, A. P. (2022). The costs and benefits of primary prevention of zoonotic pandemics. Science Advances, 8(5). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abl4183
