Source:
https://scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3053015/dangers-lurk-chinas-ban-wild-animal-trade
China/ Politics

Dangers lurk for China’s ban on the wild animal trade

  • The breeding and consumption of exotic species was big business in China until a new coronavirus was linked to a wet market in Wuhan
  • Stamping out the industry will mean overcoming limited enforcement resources and entrenched interests, conservationists say
Wild animals for sale in Qingyuan, Guangdong province, in June 2018. Photo: Handout

When Yin Shanchuan and his colleagues visited the Fresh Agricultural Products Wholesale Market in the southern Chinese city of Qingyuan about two years ago, he was stunned by what he saw.

For more than a decade, Yin, a veteran conservationist, has had numerous run-ins with wild animal traders, as well as market and stall owners across China. But the market in Qingyuan still sent a shiver down his spine.

For sale at the market were row after row of bamboo rats, groundhogs, foxes, snakes and ducks crammed into cages.

“We had never seen so many dangerous animals in the one market before,” Yin said.

He reported soon what he saw to the authorities and was told that action had been taken against the traders. But the market continued to do brisk business for more than a year until it was shut down in late January after reports that a hitherto unknown coronavirus might have spread from a similar wet market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei province.

The virus, which causes a disease called Covid-19, has since infected more than 80,000 people and killed more than 2,700, most of them in China. It has also disrupted China’s economy, international travel and global supply chains.

Desperate to contain the disease, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top lawmaking body, passed a resolution on Monday banning the trade and consumption of wild animals. It also indicated that changes to laws would follow.

Now, only meat from animals on a national livestock list and seafood are legal for consumption.

But eating game animals has a long history in China and supports a massive industry that has been encouraged by the state as a source of income for poverty-affected areas. And with limited resources to police the new rules, backers of the ban will have to overcome loopholes in the country’s wildlife protection laws, a lack of law enforcement officers and expertise at the grass-roots level, opposition from vested interest groups, and the centuries-old appetite among Chinese for wild animals both for food and medicinal use.

Until January, breeding exotic animals had been a thriving business.

In 2016, there were more than 14 million people working in what was a 520 billion yuan (US$74 billion) industry, according to a government-backed report published by the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2017. By comparison, China’s pork industry was worth US$140 billion in 2018, before it was devastated by African swine fever.

It has become the case that only people with power can eat [wild animals] Yin Shanchuan, conservationist

The consumption of wild animals is closely tied to Chinese medicine, a centuries-old approach based on the idea that food has medical properties. But in recent years, the consumption of wild animals has also become more associated with higher social status and wealth.

“It has become the case that only people with power can eat [wild animals],” Yin said.

For years, the Chinese government has encouraged the commercial use of wild animals, promoting the practice as a way to “accelerate the growth of farming” and wild animals for parks and zoos.

China’s law on wildlife protection was first adopted in 1988 and has been revised four times.

It prohibits the hunting or killing of about 400 species of wild animals that have special state protection. Another 1,480 protected species are legal for sale and commercial use if the proprietors can provide proof of legal origin. In addition, there are another 1,000 species of wild animals that are not protected by the law, including bats, rats and crows, that could often be found at markets.

One of those who saw potential in the sector was Luo Xinsong, a 52-year-old breeder of porcupines in the southeastern province of Fujian.

Luo set up his business 10 years ago, investing more than 2 million yuan into an operation that earned him about 500,000 yuan annually.

But everything changed a month ago with the outbreak of the coronavirus, putting the entire operation on hold. Now Luo is worried about what will happen to his family’s livelihood and whether he will have to dismiss his three employees.

“I’m waiting for notices from the government every day,” he said. “I’m so worried and I don’t know what I can do now.”

It does not look good for Luo. On Thursday, Liang Aifu, an official at the State Administration for Market Regulation, announced that only regular livestock animals were legal to breed and eat.

“Any wild animals that are not included in the [livestock] catalogue are banned for consumption and it doesn’t matter whether [the wild animals] are considered endangered species,” Liang said, publicising a telephone hotline for tip-offs about illegal activity.

“We will handle all complaints in a timely manner … and seriously deal with any trading of wildlife animals that is against laws and regulations.”

While conservationists welcomed the pledge, saying it was a big step forward for China, they were cautious that Beijing could enforce a total ban across the country, given the lack of success in the past.

Zhou Haixiang, a member of the Chinese National Committee for Man and Biosphere, an environmental protection group, said licensed farms often provided cover for traders engaged in the unlawful trafficking of rare species. In reality, as soon as poached animals were transferred to the licensed farms, they all became legal.

Zhou was among those who called for a total ban on the commercial exploitation of wild animals during discussion of a major amendment to the wildlife protection law in 2016.

But within his group of about 30 experts brought together to discuss the issue, only two supported him.

“At that time I knew there were problems, but there was little that I could do. The majority view [among the experts] was that the use of wild animals should be fine,” he said. “We will face the same problem this time [in revising the laws], with obstacles from interests groups, but I hope we can get greater support from the public.”

Another part of the problem is the lack of resources on the ground to enforce the laws that are already in place.

Song Keming, an environmental activist in Henan province, said things were better than in the 1990s when there were just one or two full-time wildlife protection officers in his town. But even so, the corps of forestry police since set up by the local government had to oversee a county with 800,000 people and covering more than 1,000 square kilometres (386 square miles), with responsibilities ranging from wildlife protection to fire prevention.

Zhu Xiaoning, a forest police officer in Henan province, said his job was demanding, with limited funds and equipment compared with the better-supplied poachers.

“They have off-road motorcycles, but we only have one police car. Even if we see them hunting, the car can’t go into farmland and we can’t catch them,” Zhu said.

In addition, much of his team’s budget must be spent on DNA tests to determine whether any seized animals are on banned lists.

“We have limited budgets every year, but we need to spend a lot of money on the identification of wildlife,” he said. “DNA identification of one animal can cost as much as 1,800 yuan. If we find several types and dozens of them, then the money would go into tens of thousands of yuan.”

Management of the area was also complicated by the many government departments involved in regulating wildlife markets, from forestry and market supervision bureaus, to agricultural departments and forestry police.

“No matter how detailed the regulations are, grass-roots officers are not capable of understanding and appreciating the content,” Zhou, the environmentalist, said. “For example, how can someone who works in the market supervision bureau but has little knowledge about wildlife tell which animal in a market is under what type of protection?”

Sara Platto, from Beijing based non-government organisation China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, said that any future regulations in the area needed to be precise and transparent.

She said that Italy, for example, had very strict regulations about the possession of wildlife.

“If it’s discovered, you have dead or live wildlife in your house, you’ll go to jail,” Platto said.

“If a laboratory or a zoo needs to transport an animal or parts of an animal, they need to fill out a lot of paperwork to ensure there is no trade [involved].”

She suggested that China should set up a national committee with people from different backgrounds, such as researchers, NGOs, lawmakers and business to make sure laws were being effectively implemented in the country.

“The Chinese government now has the potential and opportunity to make a great change, and they should not do it [just] by themselves,” Platto said.

Zhang Boju, director general of Friends of Nature, a Beijing-based non-governmental organisation, said the authorities would also need to consider the complexities of closing down licensed farms.

“How to deal with those animals, to compensate the farm breeders and build a mechanism for them to exit the industry – these are the things that [the authorities need] to pay attention in enforcing the ban,” he said.

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