Recently, China's 2019 new medical insurance medicine list has been released, and it will be officially implemented from January 1, 2020. Among them, the Chinese medicine decoction pieces, including the scope and place of the decoction pieces paid by the medical insurance fund, shall not be adjusted to be included in the scope of the decoction pieces paid by the medical insurance fund.
Chinese herbal medicines that cannot be included in the scope of fund payment include pangolin (醋山甲、炮山甲).
At the CITES Conference of Parties meeting in Geneva which runs until August 28, China announced that its national medical insurance would no longer cover medicines containing raw and cooked pangolins scales. In a statement, WildAid chief executive Peter Knights said, “China’s decision to exclude the highly endangered pangolin from government-insured traditional medicine is another vital step in reducing market channels for pangolin scales”. (according to scmp.com)
Coincidentally, in August 2019, the official website of the Chinese government procurement announced the deletion of the tender information on the pangolin Chinese medicine decoction pieces. These measures are of great significance to the protection of pangolins worldwide. China has regarded pangolin scales as a traditional Chinese medicine since ancient times. Nowadays, the name of pangolin is frequently found in many Chinese medicine ingredients, which inevitably leads to poaching and illegal trade in pangolins.
Since January 2019, the amount of smuggled pangolin scales has reached 100 tons. The population of pangolins in China has been greatly reduced compared with the past, and the fate of pangolins is receiving more and more attention from the world. Nowadays, it has received the attention of relevant departments of the Chinese government, and it has undoubtedly injected a dose of tonic for the protection of pangolins.
It is hoped that more and more people in the world will join the ranks of protecting pangolins, so that the world will have more warmth and less killing. It is hoped that the lovely creatures of pangolin can rejuvenate in the world.
(Photo credit: CBCGDF volunteers)
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/9668.html
By / Maggie