Recently, pangolins have been officially removed from Chinese Pharmacopoeia and have been raised to a national first-level protected animal. Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, the Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) applauds the progress, he also has some thoughts.

"Firstly, I am very encouraged. Our continuous efforts for several years have not been in vain. The two decisions of these two departments are the result of our continuous efforts in recent years, so we are very happy. Although it came a little late, our core requirements for pangolins were fulfilled. We thank and congratulate the relevant departments for their acceptance.

But we still have a long way to go. We think we should be very vigilant about the so-called "domestic breeding efforts" and medicinal research of some 'scientists', because some of their wrong reports may lead to wrong policy decisions.

We hope that in addition to pangolins, other endangered species can be treated in this way.

We have three goals now:

1. All wild species must be protected; we must push from the victory of the pangolin to all wildlife. To conserve biodiversity instead of to protect just a few wild animals’ species.

2. The national list of endangered species protection should be updated on a yearly basis.

3. To require all endangered species to be removed from the Pharmacopoeia.

We are confident that these goals must be achieved, and we will be able to achieve them.

Some people asked me, "If it were not COVID-19, can this effect be achieved (pangolin protection upgraded & removed from the pharmacopeia)"? My answer is still Yes.  The outbreak of the new crown epidemic has surely accelerated this process.

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)

By / Linda Modified / Maggie