China is taking multiply measures to control the outbreak of COVID-19. As wild animals could be the hosts of the virus, consuming wild animals for the edible purpose has been under the spotlight as a potential public health risk. Invited by National Forestry and Grassland Administration, NRDC collected and compiled the key recommendations and polices from the intern-governmental organizations and the selected countries on wild meat trade management and epidemic control.
Key Points of the policy review paper are as follows:
Establish a ministerial level multi-agency coordination taskforce to facilitate joint management and enforcement efforts among China’s wildlife administration, agriculture, public health and other concerned agencies.
Ban the wild animal trade for edible purposes in cities and areas that are densely populated.
Create a list of species in which import, trade, transportation and consumption for edible purposes is prohibited to prevent zoonosis and periodically adjust such list.
Enhance the traceability and transparency of the legal wildlife trade.
Conduct health risk assessments for wildlife translocation, transportation, and import/export.
Establish a publicly-accessible database for multi-agency coordination and cooperation on wildlife-related epidemic surveillance, prevention, and control.
Enhance public education to raise people’s awareness of the dangers of wildlife consumption and interaction.
Review China’s current regulations and polices on wildlife management and epidemic control and strengthen biodiversity conservation efforts to safeguard biological and ecological security and public health.
(The full document is available in Chinese only.)
