Wildlife trade: SA is responsible for bush meat landing on Chinese tables – experts

The Covid-19 virus, linked to a wildlife market in Wuhan, has spread rapidly through the world and has thrust China's live wild animal trade into the spotlight. Images of sick, suffering pangolins and videos of wildlife such as bats boiling in soup have outraged the world. Two experts on China, Professor Sergey Radchenko from Cardiff University and former South African Ambassador Gert Grobler, told a Biznews Midweek Catchup webinar that they believe poor regulations in Africa are contributing to the wildlife trade. – Linda van Tilburg

Wildlife trade at the centre of Covid-19 pandemic

A report released in May this year at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed how wild animals including lions, wild dogs, wolves and chimpanzees are exported from South Africa to China for profit.  Two non-governmental organisations, EMS Foundation and Ban Animal Trade, have come up with a figure that suggests more than 5,000 live wild animals were legally exported from  South Africa to China between 2015 and 2019.  This survey was based on a forensic investigation into hundreds of export permits.  They concluded that South Africa's international live wildlife trade is 'large, poorly enforced, indefensible and shameful'.  They called for a prohibition on the live trade of wild animals, including captive breeding and farming of wildlife for trade. 

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