The protection of animals is a global challenge and the lack of legal documents to prevent and punish cruelty to animals is an obstacle. The 11th Asia for Animals Symposium themed as “Using laws creatively to protect animals” was held in Dalian, China from 18th to 20th October 2019. Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, the Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) was invited to attend the symposium and delivered a keynote speech. As a Chinese leading NGO dedicated to biodiversity conservation, CBCGDF has been devoted to the protection of wild species from multiple perspectives and all directions for a long time. The full text of Dr. Zhou’s speech is arranged and shared as follows.
I worked for 15 years at the Committee for Handling Proposals of the CPPCC National Committee, where I participated in and promoted legislation. But it seems that there is much more work to be done today than there was then. Therefore, before the Spring Festival every year, CBCGDF organizes and holds "NPC and CPPCC two sessions proposals meeting" to collect some recommendations from the society on legislation, regulations and policies, and then sort out and submit them to the two sessions of the whole country, so as to promote the related cause to realize the development as soon as possible.
Mankind has experienced primitive civilization, agricultural civilization and industrial civilization, to the present era of ecological civilization. Animals today do not have the chance to escape as they did when they were hunted in primitive cultures. Now human technology is very advanced, such as electric fishing tools. If human beings allow such technology to endanger ecological civilization, it will make the society unsustainable.
The protection of animals is in fact the core interests of human beings. For example, individuals have the right to smoke, but it will also affect the health of others; If people buy, sell and eat animals, they are violating the right to life of people and other living things.
Despite the cries of some early awakens, the crazy Easter islanders were doomed by storms that turned the land with too much desertification for trees before the last tree fell and the new saplings grew.
Today, humans around the world are retracing the path of Easter island humans, and fast. The mass destruction of animals will come sooner if those of us who wake up earlier do not cry out and advocate for an end to the "cutting down of trees", and if we do not call for an end to such ecological destruction.
According to UN IPBES Global Assessment report in May 2019, nearly one million species could become extinct in recent decades. And a million species are facing extinction -- destroying humanity's own future. Therefore, we should do our best to protect the birds, animals and plants. In view of the various challenges facing mankind, we need to fundamentally change our way of life, production and behavior, and adapt to and meet the challenges of ecological civilization.
Otherwise, the future is likely to present us with cold tall buildings and a planet filled with plastic, all of which are very possible.
Below, I briefly introduce some representative cases in CBCGDF's work areas:
On October 17, 2019, CBCGDF ACTAsia Special Fund just participated in the Fifth International Sustainable Fashion Zero Fur Festival in Shanghai. The ACTAsia advocates the public on ethical choices by informing them of the truth behind fur, which is the cruelty of production, the damage to the environment, and the harm to animals and humans. “Zero Fur” means that consumers do not buy, use, sell or promote products that contain animal fur.
CBCGDF is committed to calling for students not to be forced to use plastic book covers, which could reduce at least hundreds of millions of them because they are unnecessary waste. These plastic book covers from production to transportation links, as well as become garbage, have caused great damage to the ecological environment. For example, many marine organisms have large amounts of plastic waste in their stomachs, leading to their death and body deformities, which are related to animal protection.
Article 26 of the Constitution provides that afforestation shall be encouraged. Our proposal is to change it to "biodiversity conservation", not just to encourage afforestation, but to include the protection of plants and animals in the Constitution.
At the same time, the current law on the protection of wildlife is out of step with the requirements of the times. We are also pushing for the formulation of a more comprehensive biodiversity protection law.
In my opinion, the protection of animals by law can be realized through legislation, amendment, supplement, and enforcement. However, whether a good law can be truly implemented, and the specific implementation situation are more important for animal protection.
In addition to legislation and popularization of the law, the most important thing is enforcement. China used to have hundreds of thousands of pangolins in one province. Now, after five years of investigation, we've almost gone through the habitats of pangolins, and the only ones that have been confirmed are only in the tens of digits. Not only China, but African pangolins are also in steep decline, with hundreds of thousands of tons of smuggled pangolins and their scales seized by customs every year. Pangolins don't breed that fast, they're mammals, they breed once a year, and if we don't take immediate action, they'll soon be extinct.
There are laws, but they are not implemented seriously, and there have been serious smuggling cases. Although the pangolin is listed in CITES appendix I, the smuggling situation has not been well curtailed. Why is that? It boils down to law enforcement and management. Demand for pangolins has led to an increase in the number of smuggled pangolins around the world.
Although we have offended a lot of people with the work we have done, someone has to get ahead, someone has to do it. The good news is that we have been calling for years for the pangolin to be upgraded to the first level of endangered status, and we have received verbal commitment from the relevant departments, which will be fulfilled this year. The living environment of pangolins will be greatly improved, which is enough.
The last time I came to Dalian was for spotted seals: a hundred of their cubs were illegally caught. The arrival of CBCGDF led to many substantial changes. The spotted seals’ placement, the settlement of the cage and the wild release of them have been effectively promoted. We also went to an aquarium, and the aquarium replied that several spotted seals were born and raised there this year. But are they farmed or wild? We suspected they are wild, and it turned out we were right.
(Photo credit: CBCGDF volunteers)
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4936/10247.html
By / Maggie