COVID-19 pandemic: UN biodiversity chief calls for ban on wildlife market

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Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the acting executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, used the examples of Ebola in west-central Africa and the Nipah virus in India to drive home her point. She also said countries should move to prevent future pandemics by banning “wet markets” that sell live and dead animals for human consumption, but cautioned against unintended consequences.

“We should also remember you have communities, particularly from low-income rural areas, particularly in Africa, which is dependent on wild animals to sustain the livelihoods of millions of people. So unless we get alternatives for these communities, there might be a danger of opening up illegal trade in wild animals which currently is already leading us to the brink of extinction for some species, she added, the report said.

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As the number of COVID-19 cases surged in China, the country issued a temporary ban on wildlife markets. Many scientists have urged Beijing to make the ban permanent.

Wet markets can be “time bombs” for epidemics, says Prof Andrew Cunningham, deputy director of science at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), told the BBC. “This sort of way that we treat… animals as if they’re just our commodities for us to plunder – it comes back to bite us and it’s no surprise.”

Mrema is optimistic that the countries would take such consequences caused by the destruction of nature more seriously in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

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