Seeing animals as a resource is a cruel substitute for real wildlife protection in China

This month, the National People’s Congress is soliciting public comments on four draft laws. One is the revision of the Wildlife Protection Law, which came into effect in 1989. Ironically, the law, supposedly designed to protect wildlife species, has witnessed the enormous rise of a wildlife exploitation industry unlike anything in China’s past.

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In 2003, the State Forestry Bureau, the national government agency responsible for enforcing the law, announced glowingly that China had succeeded in domesticating 54 wildlife species as an accomplishment of implementing the law. Indeed, more Asiatic black bears have been farmed in cages for bile extraction since the law’s adoption than before. Thousands more tigers have been raised in cages in northeast and southwest China. Does wildlife farming equal wildlife protection?

The consumption of wildlife has continued unabated. Since most exotic animals are no longer found on the mainland, traders have headed to other regions for their prized supplies. Bear paws are smuggled from Siberia. Pangolins are shipped from Africa, Southeast Asia and South Asia. Freshwater turtles from North America and internationally protected sea turtles from the disputed waters of the South China Sea find their way to restaurants in China. A so-called “tiger trail” connected to the Chinese market threatens the remaining tiger population on the Indian subcontinent.

It is no secret that China is the main destination of global ivory trafficking. Reports over the past two years have also found that Chinese zoos and other institutions have been importing protected species for display and other purposes. Chinese trophy hunters and buyers are eyeing African lions and Canadian polar bears.

Clearly, the law has failed to curb the seemingly insatiable appetite for wildlife species in China and around the world.

Criticism of the toothless legislation has been heard by authorities. In September 2013, the NPC decided to put a revision of the law on the legislative agenda. The draft revision released for public comment is the result of that decision. However, the revision is a far cry from the wishes of wildlife experts, animal conservationists and other parties that have a stake in a new and enforceable law.

The original law is a product of the prevailing mindset at the time that “protection has to serve the objective of economic modernisation”. Thus, wildlife was defined as a “natural resource” to be used for human benefit.

The law promotes a confusing and contradictory set of objectives: protecting wildlife resources, supporting the reasonable use of wildlife, and maintaining an ecological balance. Articles and provisions on measures for regulating wildlife domestication and utilisation dominate. Stipulations against illegal hunting, trapping and trading in protected species are general and toothless. Provisions against cruelty to wild animals, on farms or in other captive institutions, are non-existent.