In response to public complaints about wild animals injuring and causing harm to people, China added new provisions to the second draft of its Wildlife Protection Law Amendment.
The second draft of the amendment was submitted to the 36th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) for deliberation last month.
In October 2020, the draft of the amended Wildlife Protection Law was submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for deliberation for the first time. After the committee’s meeting and rounds of public consultation, the second draft of the amendment was completed.
The second draft adds provisions requiring local governments, according to their actual situation and needs, to take measures such as regulating the population of certain animals, constructing isolation and protection facilities to prevent and control the harm that may be caused by wild animals, and more to ensure the safety of people’s lives and property, ecological balance and stable agricultural production.
In addition, it also stipulates that local governments will be subsidized from national coffers for taking measures to prevent and control the damage caused by wildlife under special state protection, as well as other terrestrial wildlife that cause serious damage.
The second draft also makes it clear that in the event of an emergency where wild animals endanger personal safety, if appropriate measures that are taken cause damage to wild animals, nobody will bear legal responsibility.
The new draft also further regulates the release of wild animals and authorizes wildlife protection authorities to formulate specific measures for their release.
