China’s Conservation Strategy Must Reconcile Its Contemporary Wildlife Use and Trade Practices

Yunbo Jiao,Tien Ming Lee

doi:10.3389/fevo.2021.675400

Abstract

China’s supply-side conservation efforts in the past decades have led to two bewildering juxtapositions: a rapidly expanding farming industry vs. overexploitation, which remains one of the main threats to Chinese vertebrates. COVID-19 was also the second large-scale zoonotic disease outbreak since the 2002 SARS. Here, we reflect on China’s supply-side conservation strategy by examining its policies, laws, and practices concerning wildlife protection and utilization, and identify the unintended consequences that likely have undermined this strategy and made it ineffective in protecting threatened wildlife and preventing zoonotic diseases. We call for China to overhaul its conservation strategy to limit and phase out risky and unsustainable utilization, while improving legislation and enforcement to establish full chain-of-custody regulation over existing utilization.

Highlights

As China fought to bring the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic under control since the beginning of 2020, this was already the second large-scale zoonotic disease outbreak in China within just two decades [the first being the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus outbreak in late 20021]
While acknowledging that the direct and indirect factors contributing to biodiversity loss and outbreak of zoonotic disease are complex and multifaceted, here we focus on explaining why China’s conservation strategy must either reconcile its contemporary wildlife use and trade practices or run the continued risk of being rendered ineffective in protecting threatened species and preventing future zoonotic pandemics
Information from personal contacts suggests that some of these products are currently taken off the marked wildlife list. * The following information was not disclosed to the public: (1) the marked manufacturers and pharmacies of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) containing bear bile (NFGA, 2005: No 3), leopard bone (NFGA, 2005: No 6), Saiga horn, pangolin scales, or parts of state-protected or CITES-listed snake species (NFGA et al, 2007: No 8); (2) the marked entities that produce and sell products made from parts of rare snake species, or tiger or leopard skins (NFGA et al, 2007: No 8); and (3) the marked entities that captive breed some 18 endangered or high-value species excluding crab-eating marque, rhesus macaque, brown caiman, and Siamese crocodile (NFGA, 2005: No 5)

Summary

Introduction

As China fought to bring the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic under control since the beginning of 2020, this was already the second large-scale zoonotic disease outbreak in China within just two decades [the first being the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus outbreak in late 20021].

Results

Conclusion