EcoHealth Alliance

EcoHealth Alliance was a New York-based nonprofit that worked at the intersection of public health, wildlife conservation, and environmental protection. Its core mission: to prevent pandemics by studying how diseases jump from animals to humans. The organization operated in biodiversity hotspots across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where deforestation and human encroachment into wild habitats accelerate pathogen spillover.

Led by president Peter Daszak, a prominent disease ecologist, the alliance conducted field research on viruses like Ebola, Nipah, and coronaviruses in bats, primates, and other wildlife. It collaborated with governments, universities, and agencies including the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Health Organization. The group's work informed global pandemic preparedness strategies, though it also faced political controversy, particularly around its research in China. With an annual budget of roughly $10 million, EcoHealth Alliance published hundreds of peer-reviewed studies before its funding was cut in 2020 amid political disputes. [edit]

EcoHealth Alliance's mission was to protect people, animals, and the environment from emerging infectious diseases. The organization pioneered the concept of conservation medicine and later embraced the OneHealth approach, recognizing that human, animal, and environmental health are interconnected. Through innovative science-based solutions and partnerships, it aimed to increase global capacity to prevent disease outbreaks and safeguard ecosystems. [edit]

EcoHealth Alliance was founded in 1971 by British naturalist Gerald Durrell as Wildlife Preservation Trust International, focusing on captive breeding of endangered species. In 1999, it rebranded as The Wildlife Trust. The organization underwent a major transformation in 2010, merging with the Consortium for Conservation Medicine and renaming to EcoHealth Alliance to reflect a shift toward environmental health and disease prevention.

In the early 2000s, the group identified key bird reservoirs of West Nile virus in the U.S. and predicted its spread to the Galapagos and Hawaii. By 2002, it had published 'Conservation Medicine: Ecological Health in Practice' through Oxford University Press. President Peter Daszak predicted a pandemic on 60 Minutes in 2004, warning about a SARS-like virus that could 'wipe people out as it moves along.' The organization created the first global disease hotspots map in the 2010s using 60 years of environmental and health data.

EcoHealth Alliance faced political controversy in 2020 over its research collaborations with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, leading to federal funding cuts. Despite defending its work, the organization's financial decline accelerated, and it dissolved in April 2025. [edit]