key: cord-0820774-zdxztb5h authors: Montgomery, Robert A.; Macdonald, David W. title: COVID-19, Health, Conservation, and Shared Wellbeing: Details Matter date: 2020-06-04 journal: Trends Ecol Evol DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2020.06.001 sha: ec8893bdc8ea478b98a13497c8aa38ca9f8b27a4 doc_id: 820774 cord_uid: zdxztb5h Abstract Many have stridently recommended banning markets like the one where COVID-19 originally spread. We highlight that millions of people around the world depend on markets for subsistence and the diverse use of animals globally defies uniform bans. We argue that the immediate and fair priority is critical scrutiny of wildlife trade. J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f Classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020, a marketplace in Wuhan, China has been identified as a hotspot for the early spread, and perhaps origin, of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 [1] . Since the outbreak began in December 2019, the virus has spread to more than 200 countries with the global fatalities presently exceeding 367,000 as of 31 May 2020 [2] . Extreme forecasts predicted that >2.7 million people could die of COVID-19 in the USA and UK alone [3] . The restrictive measures implemented to limit disease spread have involved evacuated schools and university campuses, cancelled sporting events and public gatherings, broad-scale travel bans, and stay-at-home ordinances. Byproducts of these measures include widespread unemployment, closure of many small and independent businesses, geopolitical discourse about globalization, and an economic recession sweeping the world almost as swiftly as the disease itself. This calamity leaves the world's governments and thought leaders searching for answers. Such answers are urgent not only for human health but also for conservation. J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f We recommend that the most immediate and fair priority is critical scrutiny of wildlife trade. First, the criminality of such trade must be taken seriously. Governments, regulators, and wildlife authorities should not tolerate blind-eyes, loopholes, or the negligence of legislation that is now vividly exposed not only to conserve wildlife, but also to save human lives. Furthermore, the contours of illegality should be extended. Currently, wildlife can be legally traded for a variety of consumptive and consumerist purposes at costs, sometimes devastatingly measurable to human health, all too often to animal welfare and conservation, and which COVID-19 reveals now to be extraordinarily high. The use of animals (e.g., consumptive, medicament, pets, or ceremony) however, are so diverse around the world that they defy simple arguments or The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the extent to which human communities are linked. Diseases emanating from a single marketplace can spread around the globe in months. Members of both science and society have now stridently called for the outright banning of markets like the one where COVID-19 originally spread. Such calls are understandable, both as humane reactions to the gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic and as tactical efforts to rapidly promote changes that might otherwise take decades to enact. But in the desire to make the post-COVID-19 world a better one, both for humans and animals, the details matter [14] . We note here that millions of people around the world depend on meat, often wild-caught, traded in markets and rural communities for subsistence [15] . Sometimes, unacceptably, people illegally kill threatened species, but more often they harvest wildlife that can be taken both legally and sustainably, where sanctioned harvest systems exist [15] . There are a variety of very good reasons to reduce human dependence on illegally-harvested wildlife for subsistence. Importantly however, these are long-term goals requiring fierce attention to the multi-faceted and highly variable details inherent to the diverse coupled human and natural systems around the world and feasible only beyond the time-scale affordable for COVID-19 disease control and human health improvement. J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f preserve the rapidly-dwindling biodiversity that remains. Therefore, without taking our eyes off the long game (e.g. carbon neutrality, strategic agriculture, reduced meat dependence, greater appreciation of conservation value), there is an obvious need, and opportunity, for immediate change. Less obvious, but gravely important, is how best to attend to the details of that change, and these details matter greatly. We suggest that a socially-just analysis of the diverse risks and ramifications of trade in wildlife, illegal and legal, should be the priority starting point. 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