Wildlife Protection

Policy Measure #1

Prohibit or strictly regulate high-risk and inhumane capture, transport, and trade practices

Wildlife use and trade, particularly involving live animals, often involves prolonged transport, overcrowding, proximity between species and to people, poor sanitation, and other conditions that cause welfare harms, increase susceptibility to disease and create opportunities for pathogen transmission between animals and across species, including to humans. The magnitude and likelihood of zoonotic risk nevertheless vary substantially according to factors such as species and pathogen characteristics, source, handling and transport conditions, degree of animal mixing, sanitation, supply-chain characteristics and the wider ecological and socioeconomic context. Wildlife use and trade should therefore not be treated as presenting a uniform level of risk, and disease emergence should also be understood in the context of interacting drivers such as land-use change, livestock production, urbanisation, climate change and habitat fragmentation. 
This does not diminish the need to prevent and reduce avoidable welfare, health and conservation harms through appropriate restrictions, welfare standards and precautionary measures where risks are uncertain.
Regulating harmful practices, through bans on collection, farming, transport, handling and confinement methods that cause or are likely to cause avoidable pain, injury, suffering or distress; effective enforcement of welfare standards; and the application of a precautionary approach where ecological, health, welfare, or cumulative risks are uncertain, can reduce avoidable harm and disease risks while supporting biosecurity and conservation goals. The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) sets international standards for animal transport that countries can adopt as a baseline.

Policy Option

Adopt national regulations that prohibit or strictly regulate high-risk wildlife trade practices, including capture methods that cause or are likely to cause avoidable pain, injury, suffering or distress (such as sharp wire snares, mutilation, fur trapping, steel-jaw leg hold traps, etc.), live animal transport under poor welfare conditions, overcrowded or mixed-species confinement, and inadequate sanitation and biosecurity measures throughout supply chains and market environments.
Countries should apply proportionate, risk-based and precautionary measures where evidence about ecological, health, welfare or other cumulative impacts remains uncertain, particularly for novel trade pathways or species with poorly understood welfare or disease implications. Measures should take into account both the magnitude and likelihood of potential impacts and the feasibility of risk mitigation. Restrictions or prohibitions should be prioritised where risks are serious, the activity is demonstrably unsustainable, or identified risks cannot be effectively prevented or mitigated. 
Where uncertainty remains, wildlife use and trade should only proceed where a documented risk assessment, based on the best available evidence and proportionate to the scale and nature of the activity, identifies the principal risks, and establishes feasible and enforceable mitigation measures, appropriate monitoring and adequate resources for their implementation and review. Where risks can be effectively managed, appropriate biosecurity, traceability, monitoring and adaptive management should be required, with measures periodically reviewed as new evidence becomes available.

Challenge
Limited enforcement capacity and resources, and the diversity of markets and supply chains.

Solution
Build and strengthen customs and wildlife authority capacity; simplify enforcement tasks; enhance inter-agency cooperation; employ and make full use of intelligence-led enforcement; integrate wildlife monitoring and management with veterinary and public health systems; adopt risk-based inspection approaches that are tailored to the type of market, supply chain and species involved; and collaborate with relevant transport, market and trader associations.

•  Welfare: proportion of live wildlife shipments meeting applicable welfare and biosecurity standards; trends in morbidity and mortality, and other welfare violations during capture and transport;
• Sustainability: trends in the population status and conservation status of exploited species; proportion of wildlife use and trade assessed as ecologically sustainable; trends in trade or use of species subject to conservation concern;  trends in commercial wildlife use and trade disaggregated by taxonomic group, source, purpose, and, where data allow, legal status, sustainability status and identified risk level, with progress measured by reductions in illegal, unsustainable or high-risk trade.
• Safety: trends in the detection of priority pathogens in relevant wildlife use and trade pathways; proportion of identified wildlife use and trade practices subject to documented health-risk assessment and appropriate risk-management measures; proportion of identified high-risk pathways subject to appropriate biosecurity, monitoring and risk-management measures; and implementation of measures to prevent and reduce pathogen spillover and spillback associated with identified high-risk practices;
• Legality and compliance: proportion of wildlife use and trade assessed as legal and compliant with applicable requirements; trends in illegal or non-compliant trade; successful enforcement outcomes.
• Implementation: proportion of relevant markets, supply chains and facilities subject to risk-based monitoring, traceability and welfare, biosecurity or other applicable standards across the value chain, including collection, farming, handling, transport and trade; investment in and implementation of relevant disease-monitoring technologies and systems, including laboratory, digital and field-based surveillance tools; and evidence that relevant human-mediated drivers of disease transmission have been identified and incorporated into risk assessment and prevention strategies. 

• EU Wildlife Trade Regulations set strict conditions for the transport of live animals, including space, ventilation, and veterinary checks, reducing mortality and disease risk during transit. 
• The WOAH Wildlife Health Strategy recognises that wildlife health, which encompasses animal welfare, is influenced by diverse environmental, biological and socio-economic factors. 
• Accordingly, the Strategy extends beyond infectious disease prevention and control to address broader determinants of wildlife health, including environmental and anthropogenic threats.