Earlier this week I shared some quarantine reflections: on my habits as a consumer, opportunities as a producer, as well as my responsibilities as an individual and member of a community. This is the first time that our generation is collectively experiencing the impact of a truly global issue. New information is coming in fast and we are all still trying to wrap our heads around what’s happening. Through these memes about social distancing and viral transmission, we can recognize how interconnected we are - to each other and as a species to the natural world.
Interconnectivity has allowed us to collaborate and thrive on opportunities in ways that would have never been possible had our reach been limited to where we live. However, high degrees of mobility and interconnectedness also increase the risk of coming into contact with infectious diseases. While it doesn’t make sense to eradicate all travel to prevent disease spread in normal circumstances, we can take the time to identify unsustainable practices that cause and exacerbate these problems so that we can save lives moving forward.
5 years ago, Bill Gates gave a TED Talk on how we might defend ourselves against a pandemic much like the one we’re facing now. The key pieces include implementing strong healthcare systems in poor countries, where kids can get all their vaccines; a “medical reserve” who have the training and expertise ready to go; cooperation with the military to help with logistics at speed; simulations on viruses to identify weaknesses in the system; and advanced R&D in vaccines and diagnostics.
I’m no expert, but those sound like reasonable things to invest resources in. The devastating impact of coronavirus is a clear signal that we haven’t done enough. Fortunately, we’re able to quickly see how different countries have responded to the pandemic to learn from what worked and what didn’t. We also have the science and tools to fight and prepare for these global threats. But it doesn’t take one foundation, one firm, or one government: humanity has to play on the same team.
Solidarity is a pretty powerful feeling. It’s the feeling you get when you’re a part of the crowd cheering on a football team; when you stumble on a niche subreddit about an obscure interest you have; when you work for a company with people who share a vision; or when you are marching for a cause.
Or... when you are one of the millions around the world trying to adapt and navigate through a crisis. Whether you’re trying to lead a team, pass an exam, spread awareness, or simply make yourself feel better through Netflix and games, we are collectively trying to make sense of the current situation and eventually will try to work out how to get better from here. All of a sudden, we have something in common with people with whom, in normal circumstances, we might subconsciously categorize as “other”. Most of the time this isn’t due to prejudice, but the active lense scope of the community(ies) that you associate yourself with. Of course, different scopes have varying purposes and degrees of usefulness depending on the situation.
For example, a representative of Amazon and a representative from Lyft might see one another as the other at a university career fair, because they’re competing to recruit talented students for their respective companies. However, those same individuals will feel a sense of solidarity when they are working to empower women in STEM as volunteers for an education non-profit.
Another example is a group of tourists from LA visiting New York. The tourists and the locals could probably feel a difference in norms and cultures with one another, but if we take that group as a whole and place them in Nepal, their identities as Americans might take precedence over their identities as an LA native or a New Yorker.
The point is, the wider the “belonging scope” through which you view yourself, the more you realize: wait a minute, this other and I aren’t that different after all. If we can see how this applies to company and hometown affiliations, I think we should be able to extend this beyond nation and even species affiliations as well.
This is not to suggest that we abandon our personal values or those of our local communities for the sake of a seemingly abstract “global wellbeing”. You can still be loyal to your family and country, while recognizing that there are global-scale issues that we share no matter where we’re from. Right now, the issue we share is COVID-19. The virus doesn’t discriminate between race, gender, political affiliations, nationality, or economic status. No matter who we are, our health and that of our loved ones may be on the line, our livelihoods, job prospects, finances, education and wellbeing have been impacted.
The virus was a blacklight that lit up the world with cracks and stains in our policies and systems. There were gaps in preparedness, dispersion of information, slow response, incentive misalignment, conflicts of interest, the list goes on.
I’d like to explore one gap in particular, and it’s the one that facilitated the rise of this pandemic in the first place.
Our (Broken) Relationship with the Wild
By now, you’ve probably heard or read from somewhere that COVID-19 is suspected to have originated from bats, then either transmitted directly to a person or through a pangolin. It is an example of a zoonotic disease - one that originated in animals. Scientists have estimated that three quarters of new emerging infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic. While the rapid spread of the virus reminds us how connected we are to one another, a quick look into the epidemics we’ve faced in our lifetime also highlights how connected we are to wildlife.
HIV and Ebola both jumped from endangered primates to people, most likely through bush-meat trade in Africa
domesticated camels in the Middle East passed on MERS;
migrating waterfowl infected poultry in Hong Kong markets, giving rise to bird flu;
SARS in the early 2000s, like COVID-19, originated in bats. The virus then jumped to masked palm civet cats, which are often served as a delicacy
In wet markets like the one in Wuhan - where the coronavirus has been traced back to - many kinds of wild and domesticated animals from different countries, habitats, and lifestyles are housed together in stressful and cramped conditions. These conditions weaken the animals’ immune systems and brew a perfect storm for pathogens to mix, swap genetic code, and make the leap between species and to humans. Whichever animal it was that transmitted COVID-19 to a person, it was either smuggled by a trafficker or supplied by captive breeders, many of whom stock trafficked animals.
Although China, SE Asia, and Africa are often in the spotlight when it comes to illegal wildlife poaching and trafficking, the consumption of wildlife products and destruction of natural habitats is a global phenomenon. Wildlife trafficking is a $20+ billion market driven by the demand for exotic foods, status symbols, medicines, and pets. This is often not fuelled by scientifically-backed benefits of consuming animal products, but instead the perceived value that people attach to these products.
The pangolin scale, for example, is used in traditional Chinese medicine to help with ailments ranging from lactation difficulties to arthritis. Hawksbill turtles have been hunted for their beautiful shells, which are polished and used to make combs, jewelry, sunglasses, and other luxury items. Reptiles and parrots from South America, destined to be sold as pets, are among the top confiscated live animals at the Southern US border.
Poaching and wildlife trafficking may seem like faraway issues, but the line between traffickers and buyers is actually quite thin. I think about places like Chatuchak Market in Bangkok, which even after 20+ years I don’t think I’ve explored every stall. Year after year I still see the shop that sells nothing but alligator products, as well as the shop that sells products made of turtle shells and corals. Year after year, the live animal section is still teeming with visitors. This isn’t in some dark alleyway where back in the day people might do OTC cash-to-Bitcoin trades, it’s one of Thailand’s most infamous shopping destinations. The authorities have more to do in terms of enforcing the law, but the fact that they still have thriving businesses means they still have customers.
One of the many creatures on sale at Chatuchak
The majority of us might not be poaching tigers or smuggling rhino horns over the border, but we do travel (...when not in a pandemic), we do make purchasing decisions, and we do watch and support food vloggers on YouTube who film themselves eating exotic dishes. While those in Congress have the power pass a bill that protects wildlife and the environment, we can vote with our money, time, and attention on the products and people we can get behind. I’ve noticed that elephant rides in Thailand are much less prevalent now because visitors have called for a more humane treatment of elephants, so businesses have altered their practices to become a more ethical elephant sanctuary.
On the recovery path from the pandemic, I do hope we see more public attention and scrutiny on wildlife products. The fight against illegal wildlife trade and poaching is much tougher if the local leadership and organizations going into help don’t get the communities involved. Often, the high levels of poverty and unemployment in these vulnerable areas are what turns locals into illegal trade in the first place. Programs designed with the communities will equip them with the tools to make an alternative livelihood that makes the benefits of wildlife and habitat protection outweigh the gains of poaching.
Community outreach programs like Freeland’s Surviving Together give ex-poachers a way to escape poverty and crime. Here a woman in Thailand has established her own organic and sustainable mushroom growing businesses
habitat destruction and pandemics
Our infringement into animal habitats also increases disease risk. Deforestation may increase the prevalence of diseases like malaria, dengue fever, SARS, Ebola, schistosomiasis, and others, because it changes how and where the animals that transmit these diseases to humans live.
Researchers have found that the malaria-carrying species of mosquitoes in a deforested area of Peru bit 278 times more frequently than the same species in an undisturbed forest. In one region, after a road was built into pristine forest and people began clearing land for agriculture, malaria cases rose from 600 to 120,000 per year.
“The size of the circle represents the number of emergence events: for scale, the number of events in the United States was 59. Globally, almost half of these diseases resulted from changes in land use, changes in agricultural and other food production practices, or through wildlife hunting, which suggests that contact rates between humans and other animals are an important underlying cause of zoonotic disease emergence.” — Source
If you declare an area of land a nature reserve, you’re not just protecting one tiger or one rhino, but every blade of grass and tree that sustains the ecosystems that provide vital services to the humans living outside of the reserve. By taking a closer look at the origin of coronavirus and other zoonotic diseases we’ve faced over the past few decades, we can make a case for conservation to be included in conversations about public health: the need to protect humans is also a call for the protection of wildlife and natural systems.
What now?
In writing about wildlife trafficking, I am tempted to regurgitate the alarming numbers and share sad photos that depict the cruelty that goes on in this industry. However I think it will be more useful to take a pragmatic view and discuss why it’s important to rethink our relationship with the wild, as well as actionable changes we can make moving forward.
In looking at how zoonotic diseases and pandemics have arised, it’s hard to ignore the fact that humans are part of the web of life, and a too-big-an-interference with natural systems threaten our own well-being. These epidemics have led to sickness, deaths, and economic disruption, and one way to mitigate this is to curb wildlife exploitation. Instead of treating new infectious diseases as an independent crisis, we can recognize that they are one of the symptoms of how our world is changing and do our best to mitigate these risks.
Some good news that has come out of this is that China and Vietnam have already responded to the outbreak by banning wildlife trade. There was a temporary ban in wildlife trade in China following the SARS epidemic, but it was business as usual before long. Now is another opportunity to turn this temporary ban into a permanent one. These responses serve as a good start, but there is still work to be done to curb demand and alleviate the economic impact of such bans to the people whose livelihoods depend on this industry - China’s wildlife trade and consumption industry alone is valued at $74 billion and employs more than 14 million people.
If there is anything to learn from social distancing and mask wearing, it’s that behavioral change at scale is difficult but not impossible, especially if our health and that of our loved ones are on the line. Unfortunately, cultural change is an even slower process if the perils of our behavior are not sitting right in front of us. So what can we do before it’s too late?
We have seen that the health of the environment and the health of humans are deeply intertwined. In recognizing the perils of wildlife trade, we can drive change regarding its acceptance and advocate for policies that enact and enforce barriers to this, as well as support the individuals and communities who are affected by these changes.
As the pandemic unfolds, we are seeing all kinds of responses from leaders around the world. With faster dispersal of information and richer data than ever, the playbook for dealing with future crises is quickly writing itself. Contrary to the “unprecedented event” narrative, coronavirus was the white swan that we could have prevented or better prepared ourselves against all along. In fact here is an article from 2013 that says "This shows that right now in China, there are bats carrying a virus that can directly infect people & cause another SARS pandemic"! Along with healthcare, we can see that wildlife and the preservation of natural systems are critical investments and insurance policies for our health, security and economic stability. In a post-coronavirus world, I hope our behaviors and policies recognize that these two issues go hand in hand.
Thoughts and feedback always welcome. Stay healthy and stay safe 🙏🏼