Posted on April, 01 2022

“WWF research reveals that online trade in wildlife within Myanmar is escalating,” said Shaun Martin, WWF-Asia Pacific’s Regional Illegal Wildlife Trade Cybercrime Project Lead. “Despite the global importance of Myanmar’s biodiversity and everything we now know about the origins of COVID-19, online trade monitoring has revealed different species being kept in close proximity - sometimes in the same cage, wild meat selling out in minutes with demands for more, sales of soon-to-be extinct animals openly discussed in online groups, and trade occurring across country borders. With Asia’s track record as a breeding ground for many recent zoonotic diseases, this sharp uptick in online trade of wildlife in Myanmar is extremely concerning.” 

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), swine flu (H1N1), avian flu (H5N1), and COVID-19, all originated in animals and have proliferated in Asia in the last two decades. With scientists estimating that 3 out of every 4 new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals, it is likely that animal to human disease spillover - or zoonoses - would be the trigger for future pandemics. The trade in live wildlife and wildlife parts brings many species and their pathogens together, increasing the potential for spillover to humans.

Among the 11,046 wildlife items promoted for sale through social media posts were six species listed as “Critically Endangered” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, indicating an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. A further seven species were marked “Endangered” and 33 marked “Vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List. Of particular note were posts that advertised the Sunda and Chinese pangolins, both “Critically Endangered” species, with pangolins also identified as carrying SARS-related betacoronaviruses., These posts advertised pangolins as live animals and wild meat, as well as referring to commercial breeding. Similar posts for civets were also seen, with civets identified as the intermediate host of the virus that caused the SARS outbreak in Asia in 2002.

“The risk of new pathogen transmission from wild animals to humans - the most common source of new epidemics, and pandemics - is increased by the close contact conditions created by this trade,” said Dr Eric Wikramanayake, WWF Asia-Pacific Counter-Illegal Wildlife Trade Hub Lead. “These online sales of live animals and wildlife products need to be disrupted before they escalate any further, endangering Myanmar’s precious wildlife and global public health.”

In a 2021 survey conducted by Globescan and WWF, 85% of Myanmar respondents supported efforts to close all high-risk markets selling animals coming from the wild, and 81% believed that this would be effective in preventing pandemics from happening in the future. Similarly high results were found in survey respondents in Vietnam, Thailand and China.

“Sellers are brazenly posting about legally protected species on social media, sharing photos and videos,” said Martin. “Traders are transporting wild animals on public buses, in flimsy packaging, and sometimes clearly labelling the contents. These cybercrimes have the potential to destabilise the region, and more needs to be done to tackle both the supply of, and demand for, wildlife.”

Key findings from new WWF report on online trade in wildlife include:

• More than 11,046 products from 173 species were recorded for sale online in 2021.
• 96% of posts were for live animals, with 87% advertising that animals had been taken from the wild.
• Mammal sale posts rose 241% from 2020 to 2021.
• The largest online trading group had more than 19,000 members and over 30 posts a day.
• The number of traded species on the IUCN Red List rose 80% from 2020 to 2021.