Entries by laure

Reflecting on wildlife trade research

by Dan Challender, Friday 6th August 2021 Originally posted on the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science Overexploitation is a major threat to biodiversity. It threatens many species and one of the reasons I got into conservation science was to help solve this problem. I conduct research on pangolins, which are threatened by trade-driven harvest, and […]

What are the origins of novel human infectious diseases like COVID-19?

By EJ Milner-Gulland, Lauren Coad, Yuhan Li, Kelly Malsch, Munib Khanyari, Hollie Booth from the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Sciencem University of Oxford Originally published the UKRI website Several of the earliest reported cases of COVID-19 were linked to a wet market in Wuhan city, China, which sold a range of fresh food produce, including wildlife. Although there is not […]

Position statement: managing wildlife trade in the context of COVID-19 and future zoonotic pandemics

By the Oxford Martin Programme on the Illegal Wildlife Trade and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science, University of Oxford. COVID-19 is causing widespread human suffering, as the most acute global public health emergency of our generation. While the origin of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID‐19 remains uncertain, several wild species (particularly bats) are […]

The COVID-19 response and wild meat: a call for local context

By Stephanie Brittain, Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science, University of Oxford Originally published on the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that cause disease in animals. Covid-19 is one of several such viruses that have made the jump from animals to humans. So far, the evidence suggests that the virus was first […]

Coronavirus: why a blanket ban on wildlife trade would not be the right response

By Dan Challender, Amy Hinsley, Diogo Veríssimo, Michael ‘t Sas-Rolfes, Oxford Martin Programme on Wildlife Trade Originally published in The Conservation The early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic have been linked to a “wet” market in Wuhan, in the Hubei province of eastern China. Wet markets are common in Asia, Africa and elsewhere, selling fresh fruit and vegetables, […]

On COVID-19, and rebalancing our relationship with nature

By Hollie Booth, Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science, University of Oxford Originally posted on the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science 2020 was supposed to be a super year for nature. Instead we got a pandemic. Arguably, it is our strained relationship with nature that got us in to this mess. The evidence is fairly conclusive that […]

China’s Announcement on Wildlife Trade – What’s New and What Does It Mean?

By Yuhan Li and the Oxford Martin Programme on the Illegal Wildlife Trade team, University of Oxford Originally published on the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science A “wild” public health issue To date, COVID-19 has caused over than 2800 deaths in China and has spread to 50 countries [1,2]. The evidence currently suggests the virus was […]