KARACHI: Experts participating in an online session on Wednesday underscored the need for urgent global action to address the factors driving the emergence of zoonotic diseases posing an acute threat to human life.

The event was organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) to launch a new WWF (international) report.

Commenting on the report, director general at WWF-Pakistan Hammad Naqi Khan said that the Covid-19 pandemic was causing huge loss of life and increasing financial difficulties of families across the world.

“The longer the crisis continues, the greater the threat will be to global peace, security and stability. The Covid-19 health crisis reconfirms how people and nature are interlinked, and how our negative impact on the natural world increases the risk of future pandemics.”

He was of the view that people must urgently recognize the links between the destruction of nature and human health, or the world would soon see the next pandemic.

During the discussion, it was pointed out that though questions remained about the exact origins of Covid-19, all available evidence suggested that it was a zoonotic disease, meaning it jumped from wildlife to humans.

The government of China, it was stated, had announced a comprehensive ban on the consumption of wild animals in February and the National People’s Congress (NPC) was supporting the revision of the existing law on the protection of wildlife, which, if implemented in full, could position China’s Wildlife Protection Law as one of the world’s most robust and stringent.

Other governments, speakers said, needed to follow suit and close their high-risk wildlife markets and end this trade once and for all.

They also talked about advocating a ‘one health’ approach linking the health of people, animals and the shared environment and emphasised that this needed to be included in decision making on wildlife and land-use change.

Dr Babar Khan, director of wildlife, WWF-Pakistan, said that the risk of a new zoonotic disease emerging in the future was higher than ever, with the potential to wreak havoc on health, economies and global security.

“Now is the time for transformative action to protect natural ecosystems in order to reduce the risk of future pandemics and build towards nature positive, carbon neutral, sustainable and just societies,” he said.

Titled Covid-19: urgent call to protect people and nature, the WWF report says the environmental factors driving the emergence of zoonotic diseases are the trade and consumption of high-risk wildlife, land-use change leading to deforestation and conversion, expansion of agriculture, and unsustainable intensification and animal production.

The WWF report highlights the upcoming UN Biodiversity Summit, scheduled to take place in September 2020, as a key moment for world leaders to accelerate action on nature ahead of critical decisions on the environment, climate and development, now due to be taken in 2021.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2020