Biologists Call for Ban on Wild Animal Feasting by Officials

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Two renowned Chinese biologists recently called on the central government to ban the consumption of endangered wild animals by government officials. Xu Zhihong, the president of Peking University, and Pan Wenshi, a professor at the university, recommended that the government enact laws to prohibit officials from eating rare or endangered wildlife items such as shark fin, abalone, giant salamander, and spotted deer, and that it evaluate all government representatives on their eating behavior.

The biologists believe the consumption of wild animals by officials at the public expense has fed the illegal trade in these animals and led to destructive poaching of certain species.

“In China, people’s appetites have already posed a grim threat to the existence of wild animals,” said Lu Zhi, a biology professor at Peking University and the country director of Conservation International China, who supports the proposal. She noted that many wild animals served at restaurant tables are endangered, including snakes, pangolins, turtles, tortoises, and salamanders. Government officials are eating them illegally, she said. 

Increased consumption of many wild animal species has led to significant declines. Currently, 110 shark species are endangered worldwide, and populations of large predatory fish, such as tuna, sharks, and marlin, have decreased by as much as 90 percent over the past 15 years, according to scientists. This has shifted the composition of marine ecosystems and led many shark-fishing nations to mandate catch limits.

The Chinese market for consuming wild animals is enormous. In November 2006, police discovered numerous markets selling the animals in large quantities and restaurants offering them on their menus in the suburbs of Guangzhou, a southern province where the SARS epidemic is believed to have originated in 2004. From 2004 to 2006, Chinese customs and border control authorities seized numerous shipments of smuggled wild animals, with cases involving thousands of pangolins, a nationally protected animal. And Conservation International has reported that all upscale restaurants along the tourism route in Jiu Zhaigou, a scenic region in China’s biologically diverse southwest, offered cuisine from wild animals.  

Eating wild animals, or tasting “wild flavor” as the locals call it, is considered a high-end luxury in China. With a single meal costing several hundred or even a thousand dollars, it is not affordable for the average eater. But government officials are often able to indulge either at the invitation of wealthy businessmen seeking favor or by treating themselves at the public expense. Payments for official meals represent a huge share of total public spending in China—more than US$12.5 billion annually, or enough to build 1 million primary schools in the country’s poor areas.

In January 2006, officials with the Ministry of Agriculture called for a change in lifestyle and eating patterns to spare more shark fins from restaurant tables. But this has raised little awareness among officials and the public.

Lu Zhi believes the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing may serve as another opportunity to raise alarm about wild animal gluttony. If government officials continue to feast on wild animals, she said, Beijing will fail to meet its promise of a “green Olympics.”

Sun Shan is a Beijing based environmentalist. Outside contributions to China Watch reflect the views of the author and are not necessarily the views of the Worldwatch Institute.