A Chinese province has become the first to say wild animal farmers will be paid compensation if they cease operations and start raising other animals instead. The move comes as the country tries to end a multibillion-dollar industry blamed for endangering public health while also attempting to pacify the millions of workers whose livelihoods depend on the trade. The Covid-19 pandemic , which has killed at least 300,000 people worldwide, has been linked to wild animals carrying a coronavirus that jumped to humans. Under pressure to contain a worsening outbreak in February, the central government said it would ban the trade and consumption of wild animals. The central province of Hunan said on Friday that people who bred wild animals for food and who voluntarily closed their farms would be compensated and encouraged to raise other animals. Dangers lurk for China’s ban on the wild animal trade It was the first province to introduce such a policy, and under the scheme farmers will be paid 120 yuan (US$17) for each kilogram of snakes or 75 yuan for bamboo rats they handed over. Each porcupine or civet, a catlike species previously linked to the sever acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) epidemic in the early 2000s, will bring a payout of about 600 yuan (US$84). Hunan also announced extra subsidies and employment training programmes to help wild animal farmers. Those who want to breed wild animals for research or medicine will have to have a licence to continue in business. Some cities have also offered a string of incentives for those looking to quit the trade. In Ganzhou, a city in the eastern province of Jiangxi, the city government has encouraged wild animal farmers to switch by offering loans and cheaper rents for farmland. In the town of Dongyuan, in the southern province of Guangdong, the government has pledged to spend 2 million yuan (US$280,000) subsidising bamboo rat and snake farmers who have to give up their trade. China’s move to ban the wildlife trade out of public health concerns has been complicated by its effort to alleviate poverty. China bans trade, eating of wild animals in battle against coronavirus According to a 2017 report by the Chinese Academy of Engineering, China’s wildlife trade is worth 520 billion yuan (US$74 billion) and employs more than 14 million people. In some of the poorest parts of China, such as Guizhou and Guangxi, wildlife farming is an important source of income, especially for those in poverty. China has not publicised the progress or actions it has taken to enforce a national ban on the trade and consumption of wild animals since it was imposed in February. Among farmers reported to have dropped their wildlife trade since the outbreak are the Huanong Brothers, a pair of internet celebrities who shot to fame for posting footage of them breeding and cooking bamboo rats. The farmers refused to detail their loss when asked, saying only that they were “doing just fine” and that they had received government compensation. On the popular Chinese social media site Weibo, their previous videos cooking bamboo rats have disappeared, replaced with new ones from March of the farmers catching ducks, roasting fish and making plum wine.