PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
The global wildlife trade and prevention of future zoonotic pandemics (9 September 2020)

That this House notes with concern the increased risks of future pandemics from the continued exploitation and commodification of wildlife in the global wildlife trade; further notes that zoonotic diseases are responsible for over two billion cases of human illness and over two million human deaths each year, that sixty percent of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic and that seventy percent of these are thought to originate from wild animals; understands that the trade in wild animals is the likely cause for the emergence of the covid-19 pandemic and that the over-exploitation of wildlife has been identified as one of the dominant drivers of biodiversity loss; considers that this is not the first time that infectious zoonotic diseases have been linked to wild animals in recent years with SARS, Ebola and MERS all believed to have passed from wildlife to humans; and calls on the Government to show global leadership to ensure a pandemic like this never happens again by utilising the opportunity of the G20 meeting of world leaders in November to call for a ban of the international commercial trade in wild animals and wild animal products, and to work with other Governments, global institutions and bodies elsewhere to bring about an end to the global wildlife trade.

Sponsored by:
Sir David Amess (Conservative)