WWF calls for pandemic prevention plan

According to a new report published by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 29 March 2021, it is «likely to very likely» that the coronavirus passed from bats to another animal, and from there to humans.

In light of this, the nature conservation organisation WWF is calling for a global prevention plan against future pandemics.

The illegal wildlife trade and the destruction of habitats are among the greatest risk factors for new pandemics. Politicians must therefore massively improve ecological pandemic prevention. Intact nature is the best bulwark against new infectious diseases that pass from animals to humans. That is why the illegal, unregulated trade in wild animals must be stopped immediately. In addition, a global nature conservation pact modelled on the Paris Climate Agreement is needed to halt and reverse the loss of valuable ecosystems.

WWF species protection expert Georg Scattolin

According to a WWF analysis of the situation in Southeast Asia, of an estimated 500 markets where wild animals are frequently traded, half are located in regions with a potentially high zoonotic risk. The rules in force there, and their enforcement, must therefore be massively tightened. "Species protection for endangered wild animals and health precautions go hand in hand. Large markets with low hygiene standards where game meat is sold are particularly risky for zoonoses", warns WWF expert Georg Scattolin. "It is in our own vital interest to better protect our ecosystems. Because the problem is not the wild animals, but our misguided way of dealing with them." Massive deforestation in Southeast Asia is also fuelling virus jumps to humans. "When habitats are destroyed and natural barriers disappear, species that previously had no contact with one another are brought into contact. When new settlement areas are created there, a new spatial proximity to humans and their livestock arises", Scattolin explains.

WWF Austria sees the European Union in particular as having a responsibility to become a global pioneer of ecological pandemic prevention. "Europe is one of the largest per-capita importers of agricultural raw materials. An effective supply chain law is therefore needed to ban the import of products that destroy nature", demands WWF expert Scattolin.

Background on zoonoses and live animal markets

Numerous negative examples from around the world illustrate the risk: pig farms and fruit tree plantations in Malaysia paved the way for the transmission of the Nipah virus from flying foxes to humans. The expansion of rice paddies and pig farming in Vietnam has accelerated the spread of Japanese encephalitis. Other infectious diseases are also driven by deforestation: according to a Brazilian study, the clearing of four percent of a forest was associated with an almost 50 percent increase in human malaria cases.

In live animal markets, which exist across large parts of China and Southeast Asia, wild and farmed animals are sold and slaughtered side by side. Restaurants preparing dishes containing wild animals, as well as online and street sales, are also potential melting pots for new pathogens. Particularly in rural areas of Asia, many communities still depend on wild animals for food security, especially in remote regions with high rates of child malnutrition. Increasingly, however, wild animals are also being hunted for sale in urban markets. But markets are not the only risk: the coronavirus outbreaks on European mink farms show that such facilities are ticking virus bombs. And there are also an estimated several hundred wildlife farms in Southeast Asia.