Now that China has finally updated its List of Wildlife under Special State Protection, a more nimble and responsive approach is needed to aid conservation. The list should be reviewed every year, as well as subjected to the planned five-yearly updates. Species can quickly become endangered in times of rapid development.
The latest additions are the first in more than 30 years (see go.nature.com/2q7sfga). During that time, China has changed profoundly, but the list of protected species has not kept pace. This lag has been disastrous for some animals that were not given the protection they needed.
At least 33 species became extinct in China and many more are critically endangered (Y. Xie & W. Sung Integr. Zool. 2, 26–35; 2007; Z. Jiang et al. Biodivers. Sci. 24, 500–551; 2016).
An independent government committee should be created to oversee amendments. When making decisions, it could refer to appendices of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the ‘red lists’ of threatened species curated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). These steps would build on the more forceful approach to managing wildlife that China has taken since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: Ecology - nature.com
