Further measures need to be clarified after a complete ban on game trading
Since the Spring Festival, Song Kaiying, a forest frog farmer in Jixi, Heilongjiang, has been feeling nervous, not only because of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, but also because of the fasting problem caused by wild animals. He has been in this business for 19 years, and this is the most serious challenge he has encountered.
On February 24, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopted a decision on comprehensively prohibiting illegal wildlife trade, abolishing bad habits of overeating wildlife, and effectively protecting the people's lives, health and safety (hereinafter referred to as the "Decision"). Regulations. On March 2nd, the State Forestry and Grassland Bureau issued a notice that for breeding, transporting, and selling wild animals, the artificial breeding permits or documents that have been issued will be withdrawn and cancelled. The prospects of the farmers who have previously held a legally-farmed breeding raised concerns.
Farmed animals are not considered wild animals
Are cultivated wild animals considered wild animals? Zhao Xiang, Director of Protection of Shanshui Nature Conservation Center, explained: "What we mean by wildlife is defined at the species level, but some populations of a species may be domesticated and bred by humans. For example, yak is still a wild animal but has a family. The distinction between yak and wild yak. "Ren Zhanjun, a professor at the College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A & F University, said:" Wild animals understood by the public are different from domestic animals. If the original source of this population was captured from the wild, it will be attributed to wild Animals, this name is not scientific enough. The more mature populations that have been domesticated and bred later are called economic animals and are still managed by the forestry department according to wild animals. "
The original intention of artificial domestication and breeding of wild animals was to meet the needs of society while alleviating the protection pressure of wild populations. Ren Zhanjun introduced that China's use of wild animals predates the introduction of wildlife protection laws. In the 1950s and 1960s, based on historical conditions at the time, the state encouraged the exploration of wild animals that could be domesticated. With the development of society, it is no longer encouraged to obtain seed sources from the wild. One of the criteria suitable for artificial domestication is that the seed source is the individuals after the second generation of artificial breeding. Zhao Xiang said that after the amendment of the Wildlife Protection Law in 2016, it reflected the principle of giving priority to the protection of wildlife.
In decades of domestication and breeding, the use of wild animals includes food, medicine, fur, scientific research, and display. The artificial breeding, research, and management chains of some populations have been gradually improved. According to data released by the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the number of direct practitioners in the wild animal breeding industry reached 14.8898 million in 2016, and the direct output value created was about 520.616 billion yuan.
Reasonable legality of some wildlife protection
For a long time, there is no clear distinction between the protection and use of wild animals. The National List of Key Protected Wild Animals and the National List of Terrestrial Wild Animals with Important Ecological, Scientific, and Social Values, together with the local key protected wildlife lists, constitute the main basis for China's wildlife protection. And some of them included in the ranks of protected animals, such as Chinese forest frogs and civet cats, were also included in the "List of Terrestrial Wild Animals Matured in Commercial Management Using Domesticated Breeding Technology" issued by the former State Forestry Administration in 2003. Allow legal breeding.
Song Yingkai's family has been engaged in the cultivation of forest frogs since his father. According to him, in the late 1990s the local forestry department used farmed forest frogs as a channel for reemployment to encourage laid-off workers to actively participate. Their family signed a contract with the forest farm and contracted 725 hectares of forest. The application of domestication and breeding licenses requires basic conditions such as spawning incubation ponds, maggot metamorphosis ponds, overwintering ponds, and temporary care houses. Provincial forestry departments are responsible for verifying and processing. To engage in transactions, you need to apply for relevant transportation and business licenses. "The frog raising investment is high and the cycle is long. It takes three years from collecting frog eggs that are bred in the spawning ponds and small blisters to growing frogs, and many people have to take loans." Song Yingkai said.
In recent years, the breeding and utilization of wild animals is also one of the industries that help to overcome poverty. The "Agricultural Industry Poverty Alleviation and Development Plan (2011-2020)" formulated by the former Ministry of Agriculture proposed that the western Yunnan border area should develop water cows, black bone sheep special breeding, wild boars, bamboo rats and other special breeding and aquaculture according to local conditions; Yunnan, Guizhou and Guizhou Desertification areas promote the breeding and utilization of wild animals and plants. Many counties and districts in Guangxi, Hainan, and other places have adopted the above-mentioned animal breeding as a special industry for poverty alleviation. Reports of poor households relying on breeding economic animals to get rid of poverty at their doorstep have been frequently seen in the media.
Despite the increasing number of employees, the use and protection of some wild animals have not been reasonably legal.
Some artificial domestication and breeding techniques are not enough or a small number of wild animals that cannot meet the provenance requirements are still being used to explore artificial farming. Even with the artificial domestication and reproduction of mature populations, the problem of poached wild animals mixed with economic animals being publicly traded has not been fundamentally resolved. "In our research, we felt that China's current law formulation is relatively complete, but it has not been strengthened in the actual implementation process. For example, the Wildlife Protection Law stipulates that the sale, purchase, and use of the state's key protection of wild animals and their products should be conducted in accordance with Obtaining and using special identification is required to ensure traceability. In reality, this set of identification systems has not been established. Most wild animals are still managed by business use licenses. Its source is farming or poaching, which is currently not valid. Supervision methods such as detection, identification, and traceability cannot achieve refined management. "Zhao Xiang said.
In addition, the most important quarantine link for public health is the vacuum zone. Ren Zhanjun believes: "We know very little about wild animal epidemics, and quarantine should be very strict. Poultry and animal origin quarantine, slaughter and quarantine, and transportation quarantine have standardized procedures and apply for epidemic prevention certificates. Economic animals should also follow the requirements of livestock and poultry . But the livestock and poultry quarantine system belongs to the agricultural sector, and economic animals are classified under the wild animal management and forestry departments, and there is no corresponding quarantine system. "
Livestock and poultry genetic resources inventory adjustments
The "Decision" of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and the wildlife protection law that will soon be revised mean that the existing problems will be further solved. In response to the concerns of many farmers, the spokesperson of the Standing Committee of the National People ’s Congress Legal Work Committee pointed out when answering questions from reporters that artificial aquaculture has a long history of use and mature technology, which has been widely accepted by the people. The resulting output value and employees have a certain scale. Animals that play an important role in poverty alleviation will be included in the livestock and poultry genetic resources catalogue under the Animal Husbandry Law, which also belongs to livestock and poultry. It shall be managed under the provisions of the Animal Husbandry Law and strictly quarantine. It is also clear that the fasting scope does not include aquatic wildlife such as fish.
Economic animals raised by themselves can be included in the inventory of livestock and poultry genetic resources or classified as aquatic animals, becoming the general hope of farmers. Therefore, new directory adjustments are of great interest. Many farmers in related industries can continue to operate and how to deal with the rearing of wild animals. Governments at all levels and law enforcement departments need to make clear the relevant supporting catalogs when they carry out related work. These supporting catalogues and regulations are the key to the implementation of the Decision and must be formulated and promulgated.
According to media reports, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou and many other places have been conducting investigations on the production (exit) of terrestrial wild animal artificial breeding farms and formulating compensation plans. On March 26, the Standing Committee of the Beijing People's Congress reviewed the "Beijing Wildlife Protection Management Regulations (Draft)" and detailed the rules on the comprehensive fasting of terrestrial wildlife and products. But the most critical basis still depends on the adjusted catalog.
Regarding the breeders of economic animals that may not be classified as livestock and poultry genetic resources or aquatic animals in the new round of adjustments, Ran Jinglian, director of the Guizhou Wildlife and Forest Plant Management Station, stated that according to his research in Guizhou Province, 80% of the household farmers surveyed have loans, and some farmers with low education and older age are not easy to switch production. Many breeding enterprises and business operators also carried out according to law within the scope of legal protection at the time, and their legal rights should be guaranteed. The retention of these breeding enterprises, the transfer of personnel, the movement of the animals in stock, and the compensation for the losses should be considered in advance.
In addition to farmers, the upstream and downstream industries are also greatly affected. "At present, the forest frogs are in the hibernation stage. Farmers can still support them, but the dealers have pressed their stocks and cannot trade for more than two months. Some are living frogs that supply restaurants. They have died one after another, and their economic losses are relatively large." Song Yingkai said . Therefore, the catalogue of livestock and poultry genetic resources is urgently needed as soon as possible.
(Reporter Chen Huijuan)