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Fighting This Year's Virus with Last Year's Wildlife Trade, Legal Atlas Pandemics and the Law: FIGHTING THIS YEAR’S VIRUS WITH LAST YEAR’S LAW ©2021 Legal Atlas | All rights reserved Authors James Wingard, JD(1) Sofija Belajcic(1) Manohar Samal1) Kathy Rock(1) Mayra Lima Custodio(1) Maria Heise(1) Sicily Fiennes(1) Catherine Machalaba(2) A. Alonso Aguirre(3) Edition & Graphics Maria Pascual Suggested Citation Wingard, J., S. Belajcic, M. Samal, K. Rock, M. L. Custodio, M. Heise, S. Fiennes, C. Machalaba, A.A. Aguirre. (2020). Wildlife Trade, Pandemics and the Law: Fighting This Year’s Virus with Last Year’s Law. Legal Atlas, LLC. January 2021. Available at https://www.legal-atlas.com/publications [1] Legal Atlas Legal Atlas is a legal intelligence firm that provides expertise in the compilation, assessment and harmonization of legal frameworks, as well as consulting and training in implementation, enforcement and prosecution. Our work is supported by an award-winning legal intelligence platform that – through a variety of digital technologies – aggregates, maps, compares, and visually renders national and international laws. Visit our platform at https://www.legal-atlas.net, and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. [2] EcoHealth Alliance EcoHealth Alliance is a global nonprofit leading scientific research into the critical connections between human, animal and environmental health. 520 Eighth Avenue, New York, New York, USA 10018 [3] George Mason University Department of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive MS: 5F2, Fairfax, Virginia, USA 22030-4400. CONTENTS PREFACE 1 INTRODUCTION 3 Focus of this Research ____________________________________ 3 Summary of Findings _____________________________________ 4 Looking Ahead __________________________________________ 5 A BRIEF BIT OF HISTORY 7 INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS & RESPONSES 11 World Health Organization ________________________________ 12 World Organisation for Animal Health _______________________ 13 CITES _________________________________________________ 14 UNTOC _______________________________________________ 16 Other Instruments _______________________________________ 17 NATIONAL LAW ASSESSMENTS 19 Animal Health ___________________________________________ 21 Animal Welfare __________________________________________ 21 Animal Quarantine _______________________________________ 22 CITES Implementing Laws ________________________________ 23 Customs ______________________________________________ 24 Food Safety ____________________________________________ 25 Indigenous Rights _______________________________________ 25 Meat Industry ___________________________________________ 26 Pet Trade ______________________________________________ 27 Wildlife Conservation and Trade ____________________________ 28 CONCLUSION 30 Areas of Concern _______________________________________ 30 Opportunities ___________________________________________ 31 Next Steps _____________________________________________ 33 ANNEX I National Law Assessment Methods 34 Selection of Jurisdictions _________________________________ 34 Selection of Laws _______________________________________ 35 Specific Inquiries ________________________________________ 37 Annex II Detailed Assessments 39 Animal Health Law _______________________________________ 39 Animal Welfare Laws _____________________________________ 44 Animal Quarantine Laws __________________________________ 51 CITES Implementing Laws ________________________________ 55 Customs Law __________________________________________ 62 Food Safety Laws _______________________________________ 66 Indigenous Rights Laws __________________________________ 71 Meat Industry Laws ______________________________________ 79 Pet Trade Laws _________________________________________ 83 Wildlife Conservation and Trade Laws _______________________ 86 ANNEX III CITES Penalties 92 ©2021 Legal Atlas | All rights reserved. ii PREFACE As of January 22, 2021, over 97M human cases COVID-19 vaccine candidates originating in shark and 2.1M deaths have been reported globally due liver. For primates, the problem may be even more to COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2. Both figures severe although the numbers are not the same. are almost double what they were just two months Primates are both targets for disease study and, as prior.1 It is speculated that the pandemic originated recent publications suggest, may be highly in a wet market in Wuhan and it has been linked to susceptible to the disease itself.2 In other words, horseshoe bats as potential reservoirs, perhaps COVID-19 can hit primates twice – once as a target with other species involved in the transmission. for research, and again as exposure represents a Whatever its source, this is not the first pandemic significant risk to their survival.3 affecting humanity. The Spanish flu (1918 H1N1 Beyond counting infection rates and fatalities, influenza), the deadliest pandemic of the 20th however, there has never been a full and accurate century, infected an estimated 500M people and accounting of the social, environmental, and killed 50M. Several epidemics and pandemics have economic toll of these outbreaks. What is known, followed in recent times including HIV/AIDS (35M is that their primary root causes are anthropogenic. killed since 1981), H1N1 swine flu (1.4B infected; These include overexploitation of species, habitat 151-575k killed), West Africa Ebola virus of 2014- destruction, and exotic species introductions 16 (28.6k cases and 11.3k deaths), Zika virus, (referred to as the “evil trio”), which in turn lead to SARS and MERS emerging in between. ecosystem disruptions causing alteration of disease transmission patterns. Adding international travel, globalization, and Beyond counting infection rates and fatalities, however, there has never climate change, and we have the “savage been a full and accurate accounting of the social, environmental, and sextet” of disease emergence and spread4 economic toll of these outbreaks. – all driven by human activity. We also know that the risk of disease spillover is linked to human culture, habits But COVID-19 is not just a problem for humans. It and behavior that involve close contact with animals also impacts many animal species, including wild and wildlife in a variety of settings, i.e., wet markets, animals – some because they play a role in bushmeat hunting and trade, illegal international biomedical research; others (primates in particular), trade, and exotic species introduction. In other because they too are susceptible to infection from words, the activities that drive exposure and the virus. To provide some dimension to the impact, transmission are multiple, long-standing, and consider that over half a million sharks will be killed woven into the fabric of human culture globally. to harvest squalene, an ingredient used in some 4 1 51M and 1.34M, respectively Aguirre A.A. (2017). Changing patterns of emerging zoonotic 2 Melin, A.D., M. Janiak, F. Marrone, P. Arora, and J. Higham. diseases in wildlife, domestic animals, and humans linked to biodiversity loss and globalization. ILAR Journal 58(3): (pre-print 2020). Comparative ACE2 variation and primate https://doi.org/10.1093/ilar/ilx035. COVID-19 risk. National Institutes of Health. 3 Ibid. ©2021 Legal Atlas | All rights reserved. 1 Combined with the ‘savage sextet’, the question is looking at everything from vaccines to consolidating whether any narrow approach offers much utility. If, international mandates, to adjusting business for example, people are still hunting and consuming practices, and much more. animals for traditional medicine, or capturing them for the exotic pet trade, does it really help if China or other countries put a ban The national legal context must become one of the areas we examine with only on the consumption of wildlife, or on equal care. At a minimum, it is the vehicle through which international trade in some high-risk species and not others? Does any ban of limited scope take mandates will be translated into action. us very far in terms of risk reduction? The answer is, ‘probably not very far.’ The national legal context must become one of the Banning wet markets alone, for example, will never areas we examine with equal care. No one will ever solve the problem not just because disease rightfully claim that legislation is a panacea, but it emergence occurs in more settings than this but does provide a foundation for all of the activities because the ban would certainly run up against mentioned. At a minimum, it is the vehicle through resistance. These markets provide nutritional which international mandates will be translated into options to certain populations and serve as action. It is necessary to ensure consistency and expressions of social and cultural mobility to others. completeness among countries in how wildlife trade It would be unreasonable to expect them to be is screened, controlled, and otherwise managed. dismantled uniformly across such a varied and And, as this paper elaborates, it needs to be geographically diverse landscape, without reconsidered if we expect to reduce the potential acceptable alternatives, and with socially and for epidemic and pandemic threats, ideally at the economically vested interests at all points. source around high-risk practices in the human- wildlife interface. This research takes one step in But problems of this extent have been and indeed that direction. must be faced if there is hope of accomplishing anything. Numerous efforts across the globe are ©2021
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