[Ecological topic]
editor's comment
The current outbreak of pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus has caused the illegal consumption and trade of wild animals to surface again. Some scholars believe that the "Wildlife Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" (hereinafter referred to as the "Wildlife Protection Law") does not include all wild animals in the scope of protection. It is recommended to extend the scope of protection to other wild animals that may cause public health incidents. Protect all animals that have not been domesticated by humans and live in the natural environment through the legal system. Some experts pointed out that the legal management and use of wild animals has brought a lot of convenience and benefits to the development and progress of human society. Strengthening the protection of wild animals is not as simple as prohibiting artificial breeding and breeding. What is more important is how to define wild animals. And artificial breeding of animals. The above viewpoints are all objective analysis of the causes of the current epidemic, deep reflections on potential public health security risks, and active explorations on the protection and sustainable use of biological resources. It is worthy of our attention, thinking, and positive changes in our actions. .
From the perspective of public health safety, biodiversity protection or public awareness of civilization, not eating wild animals is the direction that should be advocated, and relevant laws and regulations need to be amended urgently to form a long-term regulatory mechanism-
eliminates illegal consumption of wild animals and ills
of trade: Zhao Xiang, Shi Xiangying, Lu (respectively Department protection Officer Shanshui Conservation Center, Executive Director of the landscape Conservation Center, Professor, School of life sciences, Peking University)
currently, the novel coronavirus infection epidemic pneumonia affects Human heart. In order to block the possible source of infection and transmission, on January 26, 2020, the “Announcement of the State Administration of Market Supervision, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Forestry and Grass Administration on the prohibition of wildlife trading” was released, and all provinces and cities across the country quickly launched a comprehensive ban on wildlife trading. jobs. These actions have shown us that the years of ills in the illegal consumption and trade of wild animals in our country are expected to be resolved.
However, only 342 species of wild animals on the national key protection list are prohibited in the Wildlife Protection Law of our country. Wild animals such as bats and marmots are not included in the scope of the law. This is undoubtedly a major threat to public health security. Loopholes, it is urgent to amend relevant laws and regulations to form a long-term supervision mechanism.
Some wild animal products seized by Jilin Forest Police Xinhua News Agency issued
Wild animal fasting and protection range urgently need to be expanded
The wild animals discussed in this article mainly refer to our native terrestrial vertebrates. Wild animals currently have certain operational value and functions in many fields such as food, traditional Chinese medicine, fur products, zoos, and important state affairs. Among them, as food is the most direct and most direct public health risk in the above fields. From SARS in 2003 to the new coronavirus-infected pneumonia, the lessons of eating wild animals are too profound, and hunting caused by eating has become a direct threat to the endangerment of many species.
Although for the aborigines of some countries, eating wild animals is a necessary way of supplementing protein, in our country, eating wild animals is more for the purpose of showing off, showing identity or some kind of functional superstition. It can be seen from the price of game on the menu of the "Popular Livestock Restaurant" in Wuhan South China Seafood Market. Putting wild animals, especially endangered species on the dinner table, will undoubtedly affect human attitudes towards nature, and make some people abandon their reverence for nature.
A black-necked crane living in harmony with local residents in Linzhou County, Lhasa, Tibet. Xinhua News Agency issued
. In recent years, with the deepening of the concept of ecological civilization, eating wild animals has gradually become a consensus among more people. However, there are loopholes in current legal supervision. China’s Wildlife Protection Law clearly stipulates: “It is prohibited to produce, operate and use foods made with national key protected wild animals and their products, or use foods made from non-national key protected wild animals and their products without a legal source certificate. It is forbidden for consumption. Illegal purchase of wild animals and their products under national key protection.” At present, there are 342 species that have entered the national key protection list of wild animals. However, it is precisely some common wild animals that are not on the national key protection list, including bats, civet cats, and marmots. , Hedgehogs, etc. have become or are becoming reservoirs or intermediate hosts for animal and human diseases.
our country wildThe animal protection law stipulates that the protection objects are "precious and endangered terrestrial and aquatic wild animals and terrestrial wild animals with important ecological, scientific and social value". These animals are divided into three categories: national key protected animals, local key protected animals The protection of animals and animals with important scientific research, economic and social value is the so-called "three animals". For those wild animals not included in the above scope, it is difficult to find clear legal regulations for their use. Taking bats as an example, our research team combed through the local key protection lists of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities across the country and found that only Hunan (22 species), Hainan (7 species) and Tianjin (1 species) included bats in the local key list ——This means that bat species in other provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities or not in these lists have basically no protection laws to follow, and can be caught, traded, and eaten wantonly. For another example, the marmot, an important spreader of plague, is only included in the key protection list of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and other important distribution areas (Sichuan, Qinghai, Xinjiang and other provinces) are not included. However, the behavior of feeding and teasing marmots is not uncommon on my country's online social platforms. There is undoubtedly a hidden danger to public health safety, but it is basically unacceptable.
Based on the above analysis, we suggest: incorporate the consideration of public safety risks into the amendment of the Wildlife Protection Law; expand the legal scope of prohibition of eating, prohibit all wild animals from directly entering the market and dining table; Domestication, breeding, and operation are all incorporated into legal norms. Except for key protected wild animals, they can be classified as "general protected wild animals" for hierarchical management. In short, the legal system protects wild animals, that is, all animals that have not been domesticated by humans and live in the natural environment.
Artificially bred wild animals should be managed separately.
In recent years, food made from artificially bred rabbits, bamboo rats and other animals has become very popular, and this kind of aquaculture is an important industry and livelihood for some small and micro enterprises and farmers. So, can legally domesticated wild animals be eaten? Can it be used for business?
Previously, due to loopholes in legal supervision and difficulties in law enforcement and supervision, domestication and breeding were actually illegal acquisition and hunting of wild animals. In this regard, we suggest that for the use of non-food wild animals, we must first strengthen the administrative licensing and full-chain management of business use, raise standards, and strengthen law enforcement supervision. At the same time, we should make information public, accept public supervision, and comprehensively strengthen supervision.
Existing wild animal domestication and breeding centers and legal operators should be subject to scientific and management census certification: On the one hand, those domestication and breeding technologies are immature, domesticated populations are unsustainable, and wild animals need to be continuously captured from the wild. Even entities and individuals with illegal records will be banned from relevant permits; on the other hand, operators who have succeeded in domestication and reproduction and whose populations are sustainable without requiring capture from the wild will be re-granted. In terms of food and management, in order to distinguish from the previously defined wild animals (all animals that have not been domesticated by humans and live in the natural environment) for easy management, we recommend that those domestication and reproduction technologies are mature and the second generation of artificial reproduction The above populations that have been adapted to the artificial environment will be designated as a list of wild animals, transformed into “specially farmed animals”, removed from the scope of the Wildlife Protection Law, and regulated in a manner similar to livestock and poultry management. In this way, there will be no wild animals traded on the table and in the market, only artificially bred special breeding animals with the offspring of the second generation or more. Once wild animals appear, they are illegal and can greatly reduce the difficulty of market supervision.
In the short term, we advocate that after screening existing operations, in the scope of the new definition of wild animals, stop issuing new licenses for the domestication, breeding and management of wild animals for food purposes, so as to gradually fade out of public view as an industry. What needs to be emphasized is that in order to avoid illegal hunting of wild animals pretending to be special farmed animals for "legal" trade, and to solve the problem of management and law enforcement caused by the difficulty in distinguishing between wild caught and domesticated animals in the market, it is also necessary to improve the government's management requirements for breeding units , Including: establishing species pedigrees, breeding files and individual data in accordance with the legal requirements for artificial breeding of key protected wild animals; for some animals with higher economic value, you can consider adopting currently mature advanced technologies to establish individual breeding DNA tagging databases and making them public...These practices will help law enforcement agencies and consumers trace the origin and legality of animals.
Changes in laws and management measures will standardize andGuide people's behavior-this is the bottom line, the real change comes from people's hearts. When we call for not eating wild animals, we are not only expressing concerns about public safety, but also conveying our attitudes and values towards nature. The SARS and the pneumonia epidemic caused by the new coronavirus more than a decade ago are actually reminding us that humans need to rebuild their awe of nature, otherwise the public health security and health risks they face will be unimaginable.
"Guangming Daily" (February 08, 2020 version 08)
