Photo: Xinhua

 
China's Guangdong Province announced a ban on trade and indiscriminate consumption of wildlife on Tuesday, which is welcomed in society as a timely decision made by the provincial People's Congress amid the fight against the novel coronavirus. 

The decision said that wildlife trade is banned in markets and e-commerce platforms, and that people should remove the habit of indiscriminately consuming wildlife. Illegal behavior of purchasing, transporting and carrying wildlife and its products will be punished.

The decision made by the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress is believed to offer legal support to the fight against the novel coronavirus in the province. The law took effect on Tuesday. 

The announcement came after China's top legislature said the amendment of the Law on Wild Animal Protection has been listed in the legislation agenda of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress this year. 

The public health and safety risks caused by the trade and consumption of wild animals have attracted great attention worldwide. The commission will strengthen supervision of the illegal trade of wild animals and eliminate overhunting and indiscriminate consumption of wild animals, said Wang Ruihe, director of the Economic Law Department of Legislative Affairs Commission under the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

The novel coronavirus outbreak that has claimed over 1,000 lives as of Monday reportedly stems from wild animals. Research had found the virus originated in bats, and pangolins may have been an intermediate host of the virus, reports said. 

After the Law on Wild Animal Protection was revised in 2016, it helped protect wild animals, but relevant standards were not released in time, and supervision and law enforcement are not enough, Wang said. 

"Some illegal wildlife venues are still not prohibited. Wildlife markets in some places are prevalent, which poses huge risks for public hygiene and health," Wang noted. 

The amendment to the Law on Animal Epidemic Prevention will also be accelerated, according to Wang. 

The novel coronavirus outbreak poses a warning to people. 

Breaking the laws of nature and increasing contact with wild animals are bound to accelerate the spread of viruses. There are no winners in a crisis, and people and wildlife are victims, Sun Quanhui, a science officer at the World Animal Protection (WAP), a United Nations general consultative organization, told the Global Times.

Sun called on the public to learn from the coronavirus outbreak, increasing protection of wild animals and their habitats.
Newspaper headline: Guangdong bans wildlife business