The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress approved the ban on February 24, which is aimed at protecting public health and ecological security. The order will be a decisive step to completely ban the eating of wild animals and severely punish illegal wildlife trade.
Wuhan seafood market - believed to be the origin of the spread of Covid-19
The use of wild animals in scientific research, medicine and exhibition will now have to undergo strict inspection and approval processes, carried out by relevant ministries, based on current regulations.
The decision comes after Chinese authorities temporarily suspended the wildlife trade on January 26 in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. It is not yet clear when the ban will take effect. It has faced opposition from some Chinese, including animal traders and farm owners.
Chinese health officials say the new coronavirus likely emerged from the Huanan Seafood Market, which sells wild animals in the central city of Wuhan. Late last month, as the outbreak began to spread across the country, China temporarily banned the market until the outbreak was contained nationwide.
In the past, China had issued a temporary ban on the trade of wild animals for a year (2002-2003) because of the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic that killed hundreds of people in China and Hong Kong. But after that period, the trade of wild animals continued to be carried out openly in this country.
In addition, animal conservationists also accuse China of tolerating “shady trade” activities such as trading exotic animals for food or use in traditional medicines whose effectiveness is not scientifically proven.
Illegal wildlife markets operate openly in China
To clarify this issue, Travellive+ interviewed Ms. Sarah Baker Ferguson - Director of TRAFFIC in Vietnam. As an expert, Ms. Sarah said that the recent ban is a major breakthrough of the Chinese Government, "This is an extremely wise decision in the current situation, it both contributes to solving the origin of many epidemics and limiting the spread."
She also added that the host of Covid-19 has not been completely confirmed, although most hypotheses suggest that it comes from bats, pangolins, snakes, etc., but no matter what species it is, it is still a wild animal and a consequence of illegal and uncontrolled wildlife trade.
Past epidemics have clearly shown that the origin of dangerous viruses all originate from wild animals: SARS virus from civets, Ebola virus from bats or typically HIV virus from monkeys. Therefore, banning illegal wildlife trade is no longer a story about affecting the ecosystem or imbalance in the food chain, but now, it is also a story closely related to the health of humans and communities around the world.
“I hope that the Chinese government can implement this ban strictly and strictly so that this ban can be most effective, and other epidemics after Covid-19 will have less risk of happening,” Ms. Sarah shared.
In this regard, Ms. Sarah also highly appreciated Vietnam’s efforts in preventing and handling illegal wildlife trafficking. This is reflected in the highly deterrent penalty framework, which can be up to 5 billion VND and imprisonment of up to 15 years.
Ms. Sarah Baker Ferguson - Director of TRAFFIC Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network
Also recently, in the face of the complicated developments of Covid-19 worldwide, TRAFFIC and 13 NGOs related to the conservation sector sent an open letter to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, discussing the origin of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic along with measures for Vietnam to address threats from illegal wildlife trade.
Interview clip between Travellive+ and Director of TRAFFIC in Vietnam:
