On November 6, the "Wildlife Protection Law (Revised Draft)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Revised Draft") seminar convened by the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) Legal Work Committee was held in Beijing. Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, Secretary-General of CBCGDF delivered an on-site speech. The content of the speech is organized and shared as follows.
Thank you very much for coming to the meeting early in the morning. This meeting has received the attention and participation of relevant departments. We express our respect on behalf of all those who care about the revision of the Wildlife Protection Law.
I want to start with why we have this meeting. We often encounter strong opposition from some people and some interest organizations, and even verbal abuse on the Internet, saying that our protection of animals is extreme, and even for a few birds not to starve to death, let the African people starve, and so on.
What are the facts? The fact is that human beings have reached an industrial civilization today, and the biodiversity situation has undoubtedly reached a critical point. We must change our previous thinking and attitudes, fully carry out the construction of ecological civilization, and adhere to the thoughts on ecological civilization.
In this seminar, we invited experts, scholars, practitioners, law enforcement and other people very widely to listen to opinions from all quarters, including those we do not fully agree with. This is because we believe that this revision of the law is very important. It is very important to hear the opinions of all parties, and it is also necessary for the relevant departments to hear these opinions so that the law can be amended. When the 2016 Wildlife Protection Law was revised, we also had opinions, but they were not well adopted. During this year’s COVID-19 epidemic, we suggested to the NPC in January that the Wildlife Protection Law should be revised and that wild animals should be fasted. We received a very effective and powerful response. Today we sat down to discuss the revised draft of the Wildlife Protection Law.
I would like to take this opportunity to fully express my views on the revision of the Wildlife Protection Law: The 2016 version of the law itself is a product of industrial civilization. It is based on promoting the development of related industries and, on this basis, for the related industries protection of wild animals. From the point of view of ecological civilization, this law needs to undergo large-scale and in-depth changes. Based on what? Based on the protection of human habitats and the protection of the ecosystem on which humans depend. If think about it in this way, then today's science has reached a very clear conclusion, that is, not just to protect endangered and rare wild animals, but to protect biodiversity. Biodiversity is the protection of genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem diversity. Protecting biodiversity is a more scientific and accurate attitude towards the revision of the Wildlife Protection Law. Therefore, in this revision of the law, we should regard the idea of ecological civilization as the core idea of the entire legal revision work.
Here, let me give you an example. We put forward a motion in IUCN this year that traditional Chinese medicine should be guided by ecological civilization. Relevant domestic authorities have put forward opinions on this and asked us to withdraw this motion because they believe it will have a negative impact on the development of Chinese medicine. What's very interesting is that some international opposition forces also oppose this proposal. They think it is promoting traditional Chinese medicine. What are the facts? The fact is that this proposal involves the interests of certain Chinese medicine companies, so they opposed us through industry associations and the power of their industrial civilization and demanded that this be removed. What happens after it is removed? In the short term, these companies may continue to profit, but it is extremely harmful to the sustainable development of Chinese medicine, and this damage is irreversible. Because if we do not make changes, with the increasing extinction of endangered species, the raw materials of Chinese medicine will also lose the basis for existence and development. This is a case, but in wildlife protection, such problems are also very serious.
Why do we need to revise the Wildlife Protection Law again? For the sustainable development of the Chinese people and the people of the world, we need a law that can help us deal with the most serious crisis of mankind at present-the biodiversity crisis. Through the revision of the Wildlife Protection Law, we should seriously consider the effect and impact of current human behavior on biodiversity. We need to amend this law for a community with a Shared Future for Mankind. Therefore, we also especially hope that this revised law can make relatively large and correct changes under the existing framework. This is also necessary for adapting to the development of the ecological civilization era and practicing the ecological civilization thought.
Thank you all for participating. Thank you.
(Photo credit: Liu Jing)
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/14286.html
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