COVID-19 Report - 32

RESTORING HUMANITY'S RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE

5. THE PATH FORWARD
Urgent action is necessary to address the planetary emergency and to reduce
the risk of future pandemics through systemic changes that create a more
sustainable relationship with nature.
Now is the time for the world to take immediate steps to
prevent future pandemics, and to support systemic changes
that will protect the health of both the planet and people over
the long term.
Governments, businesses and financial institutions
need to take fundamental, systemic action to reverse
the loss of nature, and put nature on a path to
recovery to create a nature positive world by 2030.
Below are three recommendations which are essential
elements of a New Deal for Nature and People, and will help
avoid future pandemics:

These actions include:
●● Strengthening government and civil society efforts to
reduce consumer demand for high-risk wildlife products,
particularly among those for whom wildlife is considered
a delicacy, through broad public education and evidencebased campaigns targeting known consumer groups.
●● Enforcing robust regulations on live wild and domestic
animal and food hygiene standards.
●● Preventing high-risk trade from shifting into black
markets and improving national enforcement mechanisms
against illegal trade through monitoring and adoption of
enforcement best practices.

Recommendation 1: Stop illegal, unregulated and
high-risk wildlife trade and consumption
Recommendation 2: Support sustainable food
Immediate action: Stop high-risk wildlife trade.
systems that halt encroachment on nature
Policymakers should take steps to halt the sale and trade
of high-risk wildlife species, which creates dangerous
opportunities for zoonotic disease spillover.
These actions include:
●● Shutting down the trade and sale of high-risk wildlife
within markets and enforcing hygienic and safe practices
across markets and restaurants, with a priority focus on
those in high-density urban areas.
●● Scaling up efforts to combat the trade of illegal and highrisk species at national and international levels.

Immediate action: Limit the impacts of COVID-19
on people and nature by ensuring agricultural
deforestation and conversion does not increase as
immediate food security is pursued. Respond to the
negative effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the environment
and on communities reliant on ecosystem services for their
livelihoods.
These actions include:

●● Increasing coordination between public health,
enforcement and environmental agencies at local and
national levels.

●● Reinforcing governments' efforts to maintain
environmental protections, to strengthen regulations
during this crisis, and to protect funding for environmental
programmes, including effective and equitable
management of protected and conserved areas.

●● Supporting the development of sustainable and resilient
businesses to support those who currently rely on highrisk species as a protein or income source and ensuring
biosafety standards are respected if establishing new
animal farming operations.

●● Maintaining and strengthening existing voluntary
environmental measures from private sector actors,
including companies and finance providers, to eliminate
deforestation and ecosystem conversion from their food
supply chains.

Systemic action: Influence consumer behaviour
to reduce wildlife demand, and support safety
standards. Ensure the long-term viability of trade and
safety regulations by reducing consumer demand for wildlife
and enforcing standards.

●● Supporting local communities to obtain alternative sources
of livelihoods and working with these communities to
strengthen monitoring and reporting of deforestation
and land conversion to prevent illegal encroachment,
particularly in areas that have lost their normal source of
finance for forest protection, such as those dependent on
tourism revenue.

WWF INTERNATIONAL 2020

COVID-19 Report

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