[Editor’s note] On February 24, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress voted to adopt the decision to ban illegal wildlife trade, eliminate the bad habit of consumption of wild animals, and protect people's lives, health, and safety. According to the data released by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, by February 26, they have handled 690 cases of wildlife violations, confiscated more than 39,000 wild animals. The case of public interest litigation on wildlife protection was released by the China Supreme People’s Procuratorate on February 28, to completely eradicate the interest chain of wildlife dark industry.

At present, the revision of the Wildlife Protection Law is imperative, with obstacles, and the government's ambiguous attitude has gradually become clear. The decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has identified the concept of a comprehensive ban on the consumption of wild animals, and it is urgent to revise and reform the Wildlife Protection Law and protect ecological and public health safety.

The obstacles are: the monitoring of the source is chaotic. Ma Yong, Deputy Secretary-General of the CBCGDF and Secretary-General of the Law Working Committee, said that "the wildlife management, the approval, and supervision is integrated. They are both referees and athletes, just like the relationship between the left hand and right hand". This situation needs to be changed.

It is the general trend to ban the consumption of wild animals. Although the "Industry Earthquake" is inevitable, compared with the economic value brought by the wildlife industry, what needs to be considered is the permanent value of the society" -Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, Secretary-General of the CBCGDF.

Over the past years, China's illegal wildlife trade has taken the form of a secret. Pangolin is known as rat or lobster, Python is known as a long worm, and various kinds of the name are tacitly understood by both seller and buyer. Now, China is banning illegal wildlife trade most strictly.

On February 24, the 16th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress voted to adopt the decision on ban illegal wildlife trade, eliminate the bad habit of consumption of wild animals, and protect people's lives, health, and safety. China to ban the consumption of nationally protected wildlife and other terrestrial wild animals, including those artificially breeding wild animals.

At the same time, from February 27, the market and trade of wild animals in the whole country will be completely banned, and the license for artificial breeding animals for consumption will be revoked. The Supreme People's Procuratorate issued the typical cases of public interest litigation on wildlife protection on February 28, to completely cut off the interest chain and make all the illegal people involved in the destruction of wildlife resources and ecological environment pay a price.

As of February 26, more than 860,000 law enforcement officers from forest and grass systems across the country participated in the regulation of wildlife trade, handled 690 cases of wildlife violations, confiscated more than 39,000 wild animals according to data released by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration on February 27.

The dilemma of the law amendment

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress explains that the reason for the promulgation of the decision is that since the outbreak of the epidemic, the problem of indiscriminate eating wild animals has become prominent, posing a major hidden danger to public health and safety. Before the amendment of relevant laws, it is necessary to ban the consumption of wild animals in a timely and comprehensive manner. Combating illegal wildlife trade and providing a legislative guarantee for fighting the epidemic.

Zhou Jinfeng, Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), said in an interview with Time Finance on February 25 that if the abnormal get close to wild animals is not stopped, such disasters as the COVID-19 will still follow.

According to the decision, fish and other aquatic wildlife are not included in the scope of banning the consumption of wild animals. In addition to special circumstances such as scientific research, medicine, and exhibition, wild animals can be used.

Yang Heqing, deputy director of the economic law office of the Law Working Committee, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said on February 24 that natural fishery resources is an important mode of agricultural production, and is also an international practice. The fishery law has regulated this. According to the consensus of all parties and the relevant provisions of the decision, aquatic wildlife such as fish is not included in the scope.

Illegal wild animals will certainly be banned completely, and the revision of wildlife protection law is also on the agenda. In response, Wang Ruihe, director of the economic law office of the Law Working Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, previously disclosed that the revision of the wildlife protection law to the Standing Committee's legislative work plan and accelerate the revision process of the animal epidemic prevention law and other laws.

The law, issued in 1988, has been revised four times in 32 years. The latest revision is in 2018, but the relevant provisions such as the ban on eating wild animals have not been included in those provisions.

For many years, many institutions and scholars have suggested that the ban on purchase, use, and possession of wild animals be written into the law, but they have not been able to do it. Zhou Jinfeng believes that this has something to do with the starting point of "development and utilization" in the wildlife protection law. Previously, when the government issued a license, it said verbally that breeding of wild animals outside the catalog was banned, but it was difficult to implement.

In 2016, the newly revised wildlife protection law changed the original "reasonable utilization" into "standardized utilization", showing more obvious protection purposes. However, Zhou Ke and Li Yue, professors of Law School of Renmin University of China, wrote an article in 2016 that the protection and reasonable utilization of wildlife resources is the policy of China's wildlife protection and development, and the state protects the legitimate rights and interests of the people who use wildlife according to law. This is an encouraging attitude towards the use of wild animals.

As the Secretary-General of the Law Working Committee of CBCGDF, Ma Yong told Time Finance that under the current system, the approval and supervision of the wildlife management are integrated, which is both a referee and an athlete, just like the relationship between the left hand and the right hand. Ma Yong said that he had encountered such a situation at his work, "an iron and steel company and a culture company can also obtain the license to domesticate and breed wild animals."

"Wildlife protection is a relatively closed system, with poor public participation and information disclosure." Ma Yong suggested that the central committee of the communist party of China's environmental protection supervision committee should carry out special supervision on wildlife management this year, to fully expose the problem and provide the support for the revision of the law."

Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4856/11526.html

By / Li Xue