If it wasn’t for the threat of the new coronavirus epidemic, perhaps the wildlife protection law would not be about to usher in the moment of revision.
On February 24th, the 16th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress voted to adopt the “Decision on Banning Illegal Wildlife Trade in an All-round Way, Eliminating the Bad Habit of Wild Animals and Ensuring the People’s Health and Safety (hereinafter referred to as the Decision). The Law Working Committee of the National People’s Congress has arranged to start the revision of the wildlife protection law, and decided to expand the scope of the law and increase the punishment.
Although the “Decision” is not a law, it has the same legal effect, and it also reflects the determination of China’s comprehensive prohibition of wildlife and the establishment of a new wildlife protection system. But why can’t and shouldn’t humans eat wild animals? What changes need to be made to our existing wildlife protection law? What are the trends reflected in the Decision just released? In response to these problems, the reporter of China Philanthropy Times interviewed Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF).
【Why can’t and shouldn’t humans eat wild animals?】
Like the SARS virus, the source of the new coronavirus epidemic points to wild animals. This time, we have to pay attention to the harm of eating wild animals because of the same painful lesson. After all, 17 years is not long.
However, since ancient times, there has been a saying among the Chinese people that “you live to depend on the mountain, you live to depend on the water”. This statement tells people to rely on nature to get living and production resources nearby. However, with the continuous improvement of material production level, the game is no longer convenient to eat and adapt to local conditions, but more likely to be a curiosity hunting psychology.
However, why are modern people more susceptible to viruses?
“In the past, people lived by hunting, which did not prove that wild animals did not carry the virus. This is because in the long-term communication process, there is a symbiotic relationship between people and the surrounding prey, so the hunter will produce antibodies against a certain virus so that it will not form the obvious harm. However, with the difficulty of transportation between regions reduced now-days, the wild animals circulating in the market come from all over the world, which also provides the possibility of ‘landing’ of the virus,” Zhou Jinfeng explained.
“Secondly, wildlife, bacteria, and viruses are food, support and habitat for each other in the ecosystem. They carry a lot of bacteria and viruses during their migration and movement, but they can coexist peacefully. However, these viruses may be fatal to humans. And the virus in wild animals is constantly mutating. It’s uncontrollable that a gene mutation may produce a virus suitable for human transmission,” Zhou added.
As soon as the Decision was issued, it was hailed as the most “strict” prohibition in history. The Decision clearly states that the consumption of “terrestrial wildlife with important ecological, scientific and social values” and other terrestrial wildlife protected by the state, including those artificially bred and raised, shall be prohibited in an all-round way.
According to this regulation, the terrestrial wild animals that are artificially bred and raised are also classified as fasting areas. This raises the question: after strict quarantine verification, the farmed wild animals are also not allowed to eat?
“Our current quarantine can only target viruses that are currently known. In the face of unknown viruses, we don’t have the right tools to test them at all”, Zhou Jinfeng said, “more importantly, the market will not distinguish the domesticated and bred populations from the real wild populations. There are still many so-called farmers who still hunt wild animals as their main business.”
From SARS to the new coronavirus epidemic, we have realized the threat of eating wild animals to human life. However, in Zhou Jinfeng’s view, the significance of fasting wildlife is not only to protect human life but also to protect biodiversity and human habitat.
【Human habitat is composed of habitats of various species】
Over the years, Zhou Jinfeng has been promoting China’s biodiversity conservation and actively participating in international exchanges. During the interview, Zhou Jinfeng also mentioned the relationship between wildlife conservation and biodiversity conservation.
“There is no doubt that the purpose of the revision of the wildlife protection law should be the protection of biological diversity. Biodiversity includes three aspects: genetic diversity, species diversity, and habitat protection.”
“The disappearance of genetic diversity is a great challenge for us. When protecting a species, many people will mention the way of artificial breeding. However, artificial breeding is generally through a unified way of reproduction, this process is lack of gene diversity. The ability to resist risk will be greatly reduced by breeding released animals with a single gene in the whole ecosystem.”
“The conservation of species diversity requires us to protect animals, plants, and microorganisms. The so-called ‘only a small number of animals need to be protected, a large number of animals do not need to be protected’, this opinion is extremely backward.”
“The third aspect is habitat protection. We need to be clear that the habitat for human survival is composed of the habitats of various species. Protecting the habitat of wildlife is actually protecting our own habitat”, Zhou Jinfeng said.
In recent centuries, thousands of species of wild animals and plants have been extinct in the world. According to the statistics of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), at present, 5% - 20% of vertebrate and tree species are facing the threat of extinction, and the rate of extinction is increasing by a hundred times. By rough calculation, in 400 years, the area of living environment has been reduced by 90% and the species has been reduced by half.
In Zhou Jinfeng’s view, the threat to biodiversity is inextricably linked to the development of industrial civilization, and at this stage is facing an important change from industrial civilization to an ecological civilization. “Industrial civilization and market mechanism have brought remarkable contributions to human society, changed our mode of material production and created great material and spiritual wealth. However, this civilization also led to the destruction of the natural environment and ecosystem. We must accept the importance of ecological civilization in a fundamental sense”, Zhou Jinfeng said.
【What are the specific amendments to the wildlife protection law?】
The core of China’s current wildlife protection law was first passed in 1988. Since then, the law has been amended three times in 2004, 2009, 2018 and 2016, but there are still many unsatisfactory places.
“First of all, the guiding ideology of our wildlife protection law is not clear”, Zhou Jinfeng said, “it has set up various conditions for the rational use of wild animals, for example, allowing domestication and breeding for scientific research, exhibition, and other purposes, making the wildlife protection law become a ‘wildlife utilization law’. I suggest that the comprehensive protection of animal protection law should be guided by President Xi Jinping’s ecological civilization and the basic purpose of biodiversity conservation.”
“Secondly, the strength of law enforcement and supervision should be clearly defined. Previously, our country allowed wild animals to enter the market through the issuance of domestication and breeding licenses and business certificates, but the standards for the issuance of licenses were relatively low, which was also exploited by many wild animal hunting activities. In my opinion, licensing is still needed for such purposes as medicine and scientific research, but this standard must be raised to the national level, a national ‘Biology and Science Ethics Committee’ must be established, and the full participation of social organizations and the people must be ensured. The domestication and reproduction of wild animals shall be approved by this committee, and there shall be a public participation mechanism and publicity procedure.”
“In terms of public supervision, social organizations should be allowed to carry out environmental administrative public interest litigation. Under the current system, it is difficult to correct the serious illegal acts of the individual of the relevant departments. However, if social organizations are authorized to prosecute administrative personnel for failing to perform their duties or making wrong decisions in the name of administrative agencies, this problem will be better solved. In addition, we need to give people the real right to supervise. In the field of wildlife, we can also set up honorary awards similar to ‘brave acts’ to support the people who actively exercise the right to supervise.”
“Finally, it is also necessary to propose the establishment of accountability mechanisms to punish those who have committed violations. If we don’t set up a mechanism of accountability, the new law will easily become a dead letter and lose its due effect,” Zhou Jinfeng stressed.
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4856/11584.html
By / Xue Tongtong