Breaking | Cautious welcome for amendment to China’s wildlife protection law
It’s an improvement, animal rights activists say, but it still regards native species as a commercial resource
Beijing on Saturday announced a long awaited amendment to a wildlife protection law but animal rights activists expressed disappointment that the law still treats native animals as a resource to be commercially exploited.
The amendment, the first for the Law on Wildlife Protection since its adoption in 1989, stipulates the country makes the protection of wildlife a priority. It would still allow the use of animal products, for example from bear bile farms, but in “standardised” ways subject to strict regulations in the law’s general principles after the amendment comes into effect next July.
Animal rights activists said the amendment had made some progress in deleting a controversial phrase in earlier drafts that the law’s purpose was to “regulate the use of wildlife resources”.
They were also pleased that the term “reasonable use” of wildlife resources had been changed to “standardised”, but were disappointed the law still endorsed the commercial use of wildlife.
