Humanity is faced with biodiversity collapse, climate chaos, pollution, and the inequitable distribution of over-exploited global resources. These crises affect the integrity, resilience and sustainability of ecosystems, including social-ecological systems, and the health of human populations that are dependent upon the air, land, sea and fresh waters. Nature and biodiversity conservation work is essential but not adequate to arrest and reverse these ominous trends; major investments in large-scale ecosystem restoration and environmental education are urgently required as well.

There is broad awareness of the need for conservation and restoration initiatives that explicitly support both environmental and human health, and advocacy for the same outcomes under many different labels. In the environmental sciences, proponents of biological conservation, environmental conservation, ecological conservation, and ecosystem restoration are all fighting for the same cause, but sometimes compete for scarce funding and are occasionally hindered from being truly multidisciplinary due to perceived disciplinary differences in priorities. In the health sciences, environmental health, eco-health, conservation medicine, one health, and planetary health are in a somewhat analogous situation. To make things worse, the environmental sciences and health sciences tend to be, but in fact should not be, separate in this context.

Our journal now seeks to help bridge both the intra- and inter-disciplinary gaps in thinking and in research to demonstrate how conservation and restoration can support a healthy environment and healthy people concurrently. Please help us to document and share examples of innovative thinking and practical case studies that support this aim, by contributing papers to our Theme: Conservation and Restoration for Healthy Environments and People. This theme explores integrative thinking and on-the-ground solutions to conservation and ecosystem restoration initiatives that – regardless of labelling – contribute to arresting and reversing the environmental disasters of the Anthropocene, and their human health and wellbeing consequences. A broad range of papers will be considered, and we particularly encourage those that advance multidisciplinary collaborations in the science and practice of conservation and restoration for health. Papers will be particularly favourably considered if they provide evidence at any scale (local to global) of approaches that contribute to a sustainable future for all living beings.

Example Topics:

Original thinking in the interdisciplinary science of conservation and restoration for health
Overcoming the barriers and encouraging the enablers of ecology-health collaborations in the context of conservation and restoration
Practical examples of ecosystem conservation and restoration projects that focus on improving the health of both ecosystems and the people dependent upon them
Identification of opportunities for ecosystem conservation and restoration that would improve the health of both ecosystems and the people dependent upon them
Successes, failures and perspectives that inform understanding and implementation of such conservation and restoration projects

Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Nicholas Polunin, Newcastle University, School of Natural & Environmental Sciences, UK and Foundation for Environmental Conservation, Switzerland

Guest Editors: Dr James Aronson, Ecological Health Network, USA, and Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri, USA; Prof. Philip Weinstein, University of Adelaide, School of Public Health, Australia and Ecological Health Network, USA.

Assistant Guest Editors: Prof. Angus Cook, University of Western Australia, School of Population and Global Health, Australia; Eve Allen, Ecological Health Network, USA; Dr Adam Cross, Ecological Health Network, USA and Curtin University, Perth, Australia; Dr Jessica Stanhope, University of Adelaide, School of Public Health, and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Rheumatology Unit, Woodville, Australia

Submission Guidelines: Research Papers (≤ 6,000 words, including references) and Reports (≤ 4,000 words, including references) presenting new information are of particular interest, but systematic Subject Reviews (≤ 8,000 words), forward-looking Perspectives (≤ 4,000 words) and Comments (≤ 2,000 words) may be relevant. Manuscripts need to abide by the Author Instructions (bit.ly/3XznYmM), be submitted via the web site (bit.ly/46brR5r) and select the ‘Conservation and Restoration for Healthy Environments and People’ theme. All manuscripts are subject to equally rigorous screening and peer-review as non-thematic submissions. Abiding by the schedule of dates below will facilitate access to the thematic issue, otherwise they may be stand-alone papers.

Publishing fee: papers published by the December 2026 issue of the journal do not have to pay an article processing charge unless they opt for Open Access. Corresponding authors at institutions with agreements with Cambridge University Press (see bit.ly/3we0doY) and or in the Cambridge Open Equity Initiative (see bit.ly/3CtL1dM) are eligible for discounts or waivers of the Open Access cost. For this theme, those ineligible will be able to obtain Open Access for one year after publication; also Open Access can be requested from the Foundation via the Editor in Chief.