United States, March 25 -- As the living tissue of the earth, biodiversity is "intimately linked to human health" the head of the UN's scientific agency told a global forum on Wednesday, noting that "we are part of that living tissue".

The Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Audrey Azoulay opened the UNESCO Forum on Biodiversity by pointing out that one year after its emergence, the COVID-19 pandemic has confirmed what we had already known; "by threatening biodiversity, humanity is threatening the conditions for its own survival".

"The pandemic demonstrated that human health depends on the health of living things", she said flagging that it is "imperative to rethink our development mode...