COVID-19, Emerging Infectious Diseases, and links to international wildlife laws and calls for their reform

American Bar Association

International Law Section, International Animal Law Committee

‘Whatever Will Sell They Will Take - Trafficking of Wildlife, Resources, Cultural Artifacts and Humans in Times of Conflict or Disruption’

‘COVID-19, Emerging Infectious Diseases, and links to international wildlife laws and calls for their reform’

Recording of the session here

John E Scanlon AO

18 May 2021

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Thank you Andrew and thank you to the sponsors and co-sponsors for the opportunity to join you today. And thank you to Juliana and Tanya for their fantastic, insightful presentations.

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The devastating pandemic that we are currently living though has been omnipresent over the past year – with governments struggling to stop it from spreading, striving to vaccinate us against it – and I recently got my first jab of Moderna, and working to understand its origins.

At some stage, we will get through it, but when we do, it won’t be over. In fact, far from it.

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According to a recent World Health Organisation Report, the most likely explanation for COVID-19 is that the virus jumped from an animal, such as a bat, to humans, possibly via another animal. One of the authors of the Report suggests that the virus may have jumped from bats to animals in a wildlife farm, which was supplying an animal market.

While it’s still too early to draw any final conclusions about the origins of COVID-19, the links between wildlife and previous epidemics and pandemics are well-known, as are the conditions that make the spillover of viruses from animals to humans more likely.

Health and wildlife experts alike have warned us for decades of the public health risks associated with people mixing with wild animals, including through habitat destruction, illegal or poorly regulated wildlife trade, and through the sale of wildlife at markets that bring together wild, captively bred and domesticated animals.

In saying so, it’s important to remember that when left alone wild animals pose no risk to human health: the risk comes from how we, as people, interact with wildlife.

And just last year the UN IPBES released a report telling us that an astonishing 1.7 million undiscovered viruses are thought to exist in wild animals, about half of which could spillover to people. Scientists also tell us that more than 60% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, namely infectious diseases that spillover from non-human animals to humans, and more than 70% of these are from wild animals.

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And it’s not just the health risks we need to be concerned about. In addition to these risks, the UN IPBES predicts that due to our actions over one million species will go extinct over the coming decades, including due to overexploitation, and the loss of wildlife habitat. Unless we change course.

Climate change is also high on the international agenda. One response to help mitigate climate change is nature-based climate solutions. They can offer about one-third of the (cost-effective) carbon dioxide mitigation needed between now and 2030. Yet habitat loss, and the overexploitation of wildlife, including for illegal trade, degrades ecosystems and their ability to mitigate climate change.

And the dramatic and sudden loss of revenue from wildlife-tourism in 2020 due to the pandemic sent shock waves through the conservation community, decimating jobs, enterprises, and livelihoods. This loss of tourism, has, in turn, negatively affected the ability of countries to manage wildlife and protected areas, which is further exacerbating these threats to our biodiversity, climate and public health.

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If nothing else, this COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us, albeit in a devastating way, of the interconnected nature of things, most particularly between economies, the environment, human and wildlife health and welfare.

We need to recalibrate our relationship with nature for many compelling, inter-related reasons, including to protect biodiversity, including wildlife, combat climate change, and to prevent future pandemics.

This will require profound changes in how we regulate the taking, trade, and consumption of wildlife, how we combat wildlife crime, and how we manage and finance the protection of wildlife at its source. I’ll briefly touch upon the first two of these issues today.

As Andrew mentioned, I Chair a global initiative, known as the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime. We are a diverse group of people and organisations coming from across every continent who have joined forces to promote changes to our international laws to ensure we give ourselves the best chance of avoiding the next pandemic, as well as for achieving multiple other benefits.

Our Initiative has concluded that our current international regime for regulating wildlife trade and combating wildlife crime, including illegal wildlife trade, is inadequate both for regulating the trade, markets, and consumption that pose a risk to public health, as well as for ending wildlife crime.

Let me share with you our concerns about existing wildlife trade and wildlife crime laws in a little more detail, and to briefly outline our suggested reforms.

Firstly, on wildlife trade, the international agreement that exists to regulate trade in wildlife, known by its acronym CITES, takes decisions based solely upon biological criteria. It looks to see if any trade will affect the survival of the species of animal or plant that is being traded. It does not pay any attention to the risks that such trade could pose to human health, or animal health. This needs to change. Regulating wildlife trade needs to be based on a ‘One Health’ approach, where biological, human health, and animal health criteria are all taken into consideration.

We are already seeing some States start to impose further restrictions on trade and markets, for example in China, Gabon, Italy and Vietnam. And the WTO, OIE and UNEP have called on national competent authorities to suspend the trade in live caught wild animals of mammalian species for food or breeding purposes and to close sections of food markets selling live caught wild animals of mammalian species as an emergency measure.

But human memories are short, as is clear from the responses to previous pandemics, and to succeed we must hardwire a ‘One Health’ approach into the international legal framework.

There are several viable options available to achieve this objective. Time prevents me from discussing all the options, but the most effective and cost-efficient way forward is for States to adopt amendments to the CITES agreement that build human and animal health criteria into its decision-making processes, and to extend its reach to wildlife markets. We know how to do this, and we have drafted a set of proposed amendments, which are available on-line.

Secondly, on wildlife crime, in addition to posing a threat to human and animal health, wildlife crimes are driving many species towards extinction, degrading entire ecosystems and their ability to sequester carbon, depriving governments of revenue, exacerbating corruption, insecurity, and poverty. If we include the impacts of these crimes on ecosystems, then The World Bank estimates their value at a staggering $1-2 trillion a year.

Further, as more restrictions are imposed on certain wildlife trade and markets, it will require an enhanced, collaborate, enforcement effort, to ensure such activities do not just move underground.

Notwithstanding the destructive and high-risk nature of these crimes to both people and wildlife, there is no global agreement on wildlife crime, as there is for example on human trafficking. Humans and wildlife are losing, and the stark reality is, that left as it is, our system is not going to end these crimes or work to prevent the next pandemic.

For the reasons given by previous speakers, we need to embed preventing and combating wildlife crime where it belongs, namely into the international criminal law framework.

And I am delighted to inform you that just yesterday, the President of Gabon, H.E. Ali Bongo Ondimba and the President of Costa Rica, H.E. Carlos Alvarado Quesada, jointly called for preventing and combating wildlife crime to be embedded into the international criminal law framework by developing a new global agreement on wildlife crime, taking the form of a Fourth Protocol under the UN Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime.

This visionary call has been made by the Presidents of two countries that have been environmental leaders, countries that have set aside vast areas as marine and terrestrial protected areas, and led efforts to combat illicit trafficking of wild fauna and flora.

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Colleagues, the world is still feeling the full brunt of a pandemic, which most likely had its origins in a wild animal, we are advised that there are hundreds of thousands of new viruses that could spill over from wildlife to humans, we are struggling to combat climate change, and staring down the loss of a million species.

Given the scale of the risks to people and the planet, we simply cannot stand by and watch wildlife continue to disappear without ratcheting up our collective response, including to our international wildlife trade and wildlife crime laws.

I’d like to finish with a quote from the Presidents of Costa Rica and Gabon:

“If we aspire to meet our global commitments to tackle biodiversity loss and climate change, as well as emerging efforts to prevent future wildlife-related pandemics, then countries must step up and treat wildlife crime as the serious and highly destructive crime that it is.

In the face of these immediate and inter-connected crises, we must act swiftly. If we can collectively muster the will to end the scourge of wildlife trafficking, we will leave an enduring legacy for generations to come.”

Colleagues, today, I reach out to all of you who are participating in this webinar to get fully behind the visionary statement made by the two Presidents and to publicly express your support to them, and to actively encourage other States to heed their call.

Thank you for the invitation to join you today.

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 Previous presentations:

Testimony and webinars

‘Wildlife Trade, Origins of COVID-19, and Preventing Future Pandemics’, Oral and written testimony to the U.S. Congressional International Conservation Caucus Virtual Caucus Hearing, April 2020 (full set of proceedings and video available here)

‘End Pandemics: Global Webinar’, Remarks at End Pandemics webinar, April, 2020 (video available here)

‘A fresh look at Global wildlife trade law: can CITES help prevent pandemics?’, Is CITES enough or do we need more? Remarks at the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law Webinar Series, May 2020 (video and summary of the event available here)

‘Wildlife Trade, Origins of COVID-19, and Preventing Future Pandemics’, Oral testimony to the U.K. All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on International Conservation Virtual Caucus Hearing, June 2020 (video available here)

‘Wildlife Trade, Origins of COVID-19, and Preventing Future Pandemics’, Oral testimony to the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), Virtual Caucus Hearing, June 2020 (video available here)

‘Nature is sending us a message: Biodiversity loss and wildlife trade as causes of pandemics’, Remarks at the German Ministry for the Environment (BMU) International Event, June 2020 (video available here)

'Giant Conversations: Preventing Wildlife and Wildlife Parts Reaching Consumer Markets', Remarks at Space for Giants Panel Session (no written paper), June 2020 (video only)

‘International Dialogue on Wildlife Trade: China and the World’, Remarks at the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) International Dialogue event, July 2020

‘Tackling the Conservation Crisis Triggered by COVID’, Remarks at Africa Tomorrow event, July 2020 (video only)

‘Wildlife Trafficking and its Impacts on Animal and Human Health: Where Do We Go From Here?’, Remarks at Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Virtual 2020 Annual Conference, September 2020

‘Filling the Gaps in International Wildlife Law - a Wildlife Crime Protocol under the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime’, Remarks at virtual side event at the 10th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNTOC (UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime), Vienna, October 2020

‘Stolen Wildlife - Closing the Gaps in the International Legal Framework’, Remarks at MEPs Wildlife Group, Pro Wildlife and HIS Europe event, January 2021

‘Combatting Wildlife Crime & Reducing the Transmission of Zoonotic Diseases’, Remarks at The Stimson Centre with ICCF Group event, January 2021

‘New Ways Forward for Addressing Wildlife Trafficking, Trade and Markets’, Remarks at WWF US, Cornell University, Atkinson Centre for Sustainability event, February 2021

‘Illegal wildlife trade: Global impacts and responses’, Remarks at Air Canada’s Virtual Forum: The Illegal Wildlife Trade in Canada's Transportation Industry, March 2021

‘The rationale for, & possible form & content of, a new global agreement on the illicit trafficking of wildlife’, Remarks at virtual ancillary meeting to the 14th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Kyoto, Japan, March 2021

‘The interconnected nature of things – environment, economy & health’, Keynote address at The Sustainable Economy Forum, April, 2021

Opeds, interviews and media articles

 ‘Time to end the scourge of wildlife crime’, The Independent, March 2020

 ‘Conservation must not be a COVID victim’, The Independent, May 2020

‘A Crucial Step Toward Preventing Wildlife-Related Pandemics’, Scientific American Joint Op-Ed, June 2020

‘Confront illegal wildlife trafficking with international criminal laws, former global trade chief says’, The Independent, June 2020

‘What is the impact of the coronavirus pandemic? Global experts answer the big questions’, Financial Times interview, July 2020

‘Illegal wildlife trade, poaching, hunting and the role of tourism’, World Tourism Forum Lucerne, August 2020 (video only)

‘Finance & the Illegal Trade in Wildlife’, Finance for Biodiversity, February 2021

‘Hope to End Wildlife Crime’, Hopecast (Podcast) with Dr. Jane Goodall, April 2020

Other articles

 ‘Do we need a wildlife crime convention?’ Article on personal LinkedIn page, February 2019

‘The tail does not wag the dog – the post 2020 biodiversity framework’, Article on personal LinkedIn page, February 2019

‘To end wildlife crime global responses must move with the times’, Article on personal LinkedIn page, March 2020

‘End Wildlife Crime Event’ (House of Lords, London UK, UN World Wildlife Day), Article on personal LinkedIn page, March 2020

‘Connecting human and wildlife health key to stave off the next pandemic’, Article on personal LinkedIn page, April 2020

‘A salute to the rangers of Garamba National Park, DRC’, Article on personal LinkedIn page, April 2019

‘Connecting human and wildlife health key to stave off the next pandemic’, Article on personal LinkedIn page, April 2020