Opinion | How regulation of endangered wildlife trade can prevent the next pandemic

Name: Salmon import ban and partial lockdown for Beijing after new Covid-19 cases in Chinese capital
Uploaded: 2020-06-21T13:00:06.000Z
Duration: 1 min 58 s
Description: Salmon import ban and partial lockdown for Beijing after new Covid-19 cases in Chinese capital

In ensuring wildlife trade is legal, sustainable and traceable, CITES also provides a framework to protect animal welfare and raise awareness of health risks

To aid vaccine work and study, CITES is working to expedite transport of scientific specimens and biological samples

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Chinese police stand guard at the Xinfadi market building in Beijing, on June 13, where a cluster of infections led to a partial shutdown of the Chinese capital city. Photo: EPA-EFE

Ivonne Higuero

Published: 9:00pm, 21 Jun 2020Updated: 9:00pm, 21 Jun 2020

Just over 100 days ago, on March 11, Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation. It has caused immense human suffering and economic distress. It has also led individuals, societies, governments and organisations to realise that we have neglected the inseparable links between the environment and human health.

As some countries begin, these past weeks, to lift measures enacted, now is a crucial time to reflect on how we can exit this crisis by building a better, more sustainable future.

From the outset of the crisis, Covid-19 felt like a stark reminder of the price of ignoring the needs of nature as the eyes of the world, looking for the roots of the disease, turned first to the so-called wet markets, unregulated and illegal wildlife trade flows and other risky interactions between humans and wild fauna.

We know zoonotic diseases emerge when pathogens carried by animals – wild or domesticated – spill over to humans and subsequently adapt for human-to-human transmission.

This can happen at several points of interaction between humans and animals, including farming, hunting and fishing, the sale or purchase of specimens, their transport, processing or storage. It can also include non-commercial wildlife management.

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Salmon import ban and partial lockdown for Beijing after new Covid-19 cases in Chinese capital

Moreover, as we have seen increasingly discussed by experts in the media, habitat encroachment, land conversion and deforestation for intensive agriculture, and our globalised trade and travel networks, among other factors, also allow for increased contact with animals.

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