Wildlife around the globe is under intense pressure from human activity and over-exploitation.
Illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade, poor governance, and corruption have significant negative impacts on ecosystems (e.g. deforestation, forest degradation) and the loss of multiple wild species, affecting the integrity of whole ecosystems, contributing to climate change, and negatively impacting local livelihoods, economic development, and security.
The current COVID-19 pandemic and other disease outbreaks of zoonotic origin such as SARS and Ebola clearly demonstrate the critical need to apply a truly trans-sectoral One Health approach, as a matter of urgency. Efforts must be focused on preventing pandemics of zoonotic origin at their source – in other words, stopping them at the point of spillover of pathogens from animals to humans, well before they can become local outbreaks, epidemics, or global pandemics.
This webinar – organised by the MEPs for Wildlife in partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Humane Society International/Europe (HSI) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) – will discuss the on-the-ground impact of markets for live wildlife, particularly for human consumption, and associated wildlife trade (either from the wild or breeding facilities), the links to biodiversity, climate, security, and health and how to address these threats through an integrated One Health approach.