How mushrooms help us understand why conservation and health go hand in hand

What would you do if I told you that some fungi spreading in the air could have a direct impact on the effectiveness of some drugs? Or that the conversation of soils and vegetation has a bearing on tackling deadly drug-resistant infections?

Conservation has traditionally focused on protecting places.

Protected areas in the UK, such as national parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) have become the dominant tools to halt species loss and ecosystem degradation, resulting in biodiversity hotspots.

While these approaches remain important, they risk obscuring a more fundamental reality: environmental challenges are rarely only ecological problems. They are social, political and governance problems, all of which have a bearing on people’s health.

My own research on antifungal resistance has reinforced this reality and was recently highlighted in a Nature Outlook written by Nic Fleming. As an evolutionary biologist studying human fungal pathogens, I investigate the emergence and spread of fungi, and the signatures of drug resistance at the genomic level. At first glance, antifungal resistance may seem far removed from conservation. However, it provides a powerful illustration of why protecting nature ultimately requires protecting people and addressing the institutions that govern human-environment interactions.

Fungus infections

Consider Aspergillus fumigatus, a fungus that is ubiquitous in soils and decaying vegetation. For vulnerable patients, infection caused by this fungus can be life-threatening, and treatment relies heavily on azole antifungal drugs. However, the same class of compounds is widely used in agriculture to protect crops. Research increasingly suggests that environmental exposure to agricultural azoles has contributed to the evolution of resistant fungal populations, reducing the effectiveness of drug therapy.

This is not simply a biological phenomenon. It is the outcome of governance decisions about agricultural production, chemical regulation, food security and public health. Resistance emerges because actions in one sector generate consequences in another. Therefore, the challenge is not only scientific but also institutional.

The story of Candida auris points to a similar conclusion. Since its emergence in 2009, this multidrug-resistant fungal pathogen has spread rapidly across the globe. Although many questions remain unanswered, researchers have suggested that climate change may have contributed to its emergence by selecting for fungi capable of tolerating higher temperatures and surviving in environments that were previously inhospitable. Candida auris, therefore, represents yet another example of how environmental change can reshape risks to human health.

Broader lesson for conservation

These examples highlight a broader lesson for conservation. Biodiversity loss, climate change and emerging infectious diseases are often treated as separate issues, managed by different institutions and policy frameworks. Yet they are interconnected outcomes of the same social and economic systems. Deforestation, agricultural intensification, pollution and climate change do no arise because ecosystems suddenly become vulnerable. They arise because societies make decisions about land use, resources extraction and economic development.

Biodiversity loss is, fundamentally, a governance problem. Scientific evidence can identify species at risk and ecosystems under pressure, but science alone cannot determine how competing interested are balanced or whose values take precedence; these are political questions. Conservation decisions are shaped by institutions, incentives and power relations as much as by ecological knowledge.

Social justice central to long-term success

Recently, a ‘One Health’ framework has been proposed to tackle antifungal drug resistance; however these proposed frameworks often fail to recognise social justice is central to long-term conservation success, and rarely account for this in regions where antifungal resistance burden is highest. Communities are not external to ecosystems; they are part of them. Conservation initiatives that ignore local livelihoods, rights and wellbeing often struggle to achieve durable outcomes. Policies that support both ecological integrity and human welfare will be more likely to gain legitimacy and endure over time.

The growing threat of antifungal resistance demonstrates that environmental degradation ultimately affects people. The consequences of lack or ineffective action will be measured not only in declining biodiversity, but also in food security, reduced resilience and emerging threats to public health.

By Dr Johanna Rhodes, Assistant Professor in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham