LAHORE: While the world continues to grapple with the devastating consequences of Covid-19, the WWF is calling for urgent global action to address the key drivers it has identified which will cause future zoonotic disease outbreaks.

In a new report 'Covid-19: an urgent call to protect people and nature', the WWF says that the environmental factors driving the emergence of zoonotic diseases are the trade and consumption of high-risk wildlife, land-use change leading to deforestation and conversion, expansion of agriculture, and unsustainable intensification and animal production.

Numerous warnings from scientists and thought leaders, such as the World Economic Forum (WEF), have been made about the risk of a global pandemic. The WEF ranked pandemics and infectious diseases as one of the top global risks over a decade ago, posing 'an acute threat to human life'.

Hammad Naqi Khan, Director General of WWF-Pakistan, in a video conference of launch of this report here on Wednesday, said the Covid-19 pandemic was causing huge loss of life and increasing untold suffering of families due the global economic shock that was destroying jobs and livelihoods. "The longer the crisis continues, the greater the threat will be to global peace, security and stability. The Covid-19 health crisis reconfirms how people and nature are interlinked, and how our negative impact on the natural world increases the risk of future pandemics." He was of the view that "we must urgently recognize the links between the destruction of nature and human health, or we will soon see the next pandemic.

"We must curb the high-risk trade and consumption of wildlife, halt deforestation and land conversion as well as manage food production sustainably. All these actions will help prevent the spill over of pathogens to humans, and also address other global risks to our society like biodiversity loss and climate change."

Questions remain about the exact origins of Covid-19, but all available evidence suggests that it is a zoonotic disease, meaning it jumped from wildlife to humans. The government of China announced a comprehensive ban on the consumption of wild animals on 24 February, which WWF supports and now, the National People's Congress (NPC) is supporting the revision of the existing law on the protection of wildlife, which, if implemented in full, could position China's Wildlife Protection Law as one of the world's most robust and stringent. Other governments must also follow suit and close their high-risk wildlife markets and end this trade once and for all.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Babar Khan, Director Wildlife, WWF-Pakistan said the risk of a new zoonotic disease emerging in the future is higher than ever, with the potential to wreak havoc on health, economies and global security. He was of the view that the Covid-19 crisis demonstrates that systemic changes must be made to address the environmental drivers of pandemics. "Now is the time for transformative action to protect natural ecosystems in order to reduce the risk of future pandemics and build towards nature positive, carbon-neutral, sustainable and just societies," he added.