Wildlife management strengthened in crackdown to curb consumption

Cities and provinces across China strengthened management on wild animals and planned to revise local relevant regulations after the country vowed to harshly crack down on the illegal consumption of wild animals amid the epidemic outbreak.

In Beijing, the capital's Gardening and Greening Bureau recently formulated 11 projects concerning reinforcing protection management of wild animals, including a through investigation on wild animal artificial breeding departments and those that transact wild animal business.

To certain illegal behaviors such as hunting, artificial breeding, trading, transporting and eating wild animals not in accordance with the law, the city's greening authorities will strictly crack down.

Applications for administrative permits of hunting, selling, purchasing and utilizing wild animals and their products for eating will not be accepted and the service will be suspended. For those who already have operation permits and the special identification from China Wildlife Management, their permits will be withdrawn and declared invalid.

The Beijing Gardening and Greening Bureau also will strengthen patrols and protect migratory birds in the fields as Spring comes, and organize regular inspections of wildlife wintering or breeding grounds, as well as their cluster activity sites.

Northwest China's Gansu province also upgraded management measures to closely monitor illegal hunting, trading, and transporting wild animals for eating.

Lanzhou, capital city of Gansu province, owns 81 wild animal breeding operation places and more than 190, 000 wild animals have been fed or bred in these sites.

Over 3, 000 people from the city's wildlife monitoring department, forest protection and grassland management organs have conducted a daily inspection of wildlife habitats and migratory bird resting areas in Lanzhou since the beginning of this month.

Illegal activities, like hunting wild animals in forests, will be severely punished, according to the city's Forestry Bureau.

Ma Jingna in Lanzhou contributed to this story.