Efforts will include strengthening global and regional wildlife trade policies, demand reduction, law enforcement, and cracking down on wildlife cybercrime. Imelda V Abano reports from Manila The range of the four Asia pangolin species: the Chinese, Indian, Sunda and Philippine pangolins. A mix of colors within the maps indicates an overlap in the different species’ distributions. The species’ ranges are based on the IUCN Red List assessments (IUCN 2014). Image courtesy University of Adelaide/TRAFFIC An official from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) says governments across Southeast Asia have vowed to strengthen measures to curb illegal wildlife trade, which some suspect may have contributed to the coronavirus outbreak. “What needs to be enhanced is more collaboration to address wildlife trafficking at a multi-country or at the regional level,” said Theresa Mundita-Lim, executive director of the ACB. “The region is ready to step up efforts to curb [the] illegal wildlife trade.” Those efforts – outlined in a statement issued by ASEAN ministers in March 2019 – include strengthening global and regional wildlife trade policies, demand reduction, law enforcement, and cracking down on wildlife cybercrime. Mundita-Lim said the ACB is ready to support states to ensure that concrete actions pledged last year are achieved. The issue was meant to be at the top of the agenda at ASEAN’s Conference on Biodiversity in Malaysia in late March 2020, but the gathering was postponed due to concerns around COVID-19. The coronavirus pandemic is believed to have originated from a market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan that is suspected of having sold live mammals, including bats and civets — previously linked to the spread of a similar disease, SARS, in 2002. Pangolins, also known as scaly ant-eaters, are shy creatures in high demand for their meat and scales, which are used in traditional medicine. Photo: Wildlife Alliance via Flikr The reason wildlife trade has come under the microscope is because pathogens that sparked past outbreaks have jumped to people from animals. “While person to person spread is now common with COVID-19, wildlife to human spread remains a valid and scientific means of transmission and therefore a perceived threat to the health of the general population,” said Dr Jonathan Moses C Jadloc, chair of the Philippine College of Physicians. “This has bearing on the illegal trade of wildlife, particularly pangolin.” Recent, inconclusive studies found high genomic similarities between the novel coronavirus and a virus found in pangolins, but researchers who study the virus say the similarity should be higher before a source can be identified. China’s temporary ban on wildlife trade was welcomed by ASEAN member states, said Mundita-Lim. “This move, along with its [China’s] ongoing efforts to contain the virus, will have a significant impact on reducing the animal-to-human transmission of infectious disease,” she said. “Protecting wildlife and improving animal health and welfare are also important in safeguarding public health.” As early as 2003, Southeast Asia started exploring solutions to wildlife trafficking after Thailand admitted to being a wildlife trade hub, according to the latest report from the Analytical Centre of Excellence on Trafficking (ACET), an open-source data fusion centre. With China entering the crackdown a decade later through increased enforcement and surveillance, Southeast Asia has seen an increase in reported trafficking cases, and thousands of seizures, arrests and prosecutions. This, however, has not been enough for the region to support a sustainability plan against wildlife trafficking, which involves each of the bloc’s 10 member states committing $15,000 a year to ASEAN’s Wildlife Enforcement Network, which was launched in 2005 as an inter-regional network of law enforcement agencies to counter the illegal cross-border trade in endangered flora and fauna. The stalemate in supporting the plan is due in part to the bloc’s consensus voting rule. “As ASEAN is based on consensus, it only takes one out of 10 members to veto a motion,” the ACET report says. “For nine years, Malaysia cast that vote of opposition. When Malaysia finally agreed to join the majority to support a sustainability plan, a new and surprising vote of opposition appeared: Thailand.” But as the COVID-19 epidemic spreads, it might tip the scales and prompt ASEAN governments to support the sustainability plan and implement stringent policies to protect native species, said Mundita-Lim.