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Following the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day, an international group of experts and key stakeholders from 35 countries today called upon the United Nations to consider impacts on biodiversity and the world’s most vulnerable people in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 250 conservation and development experts and organisations, from international agencies to community groups representing millions of people, have so far signed the open letter addressed to the heads of the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Environment Programme and other UN and inter-governmental bodies. Recognising the need to tackle illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade to reduce pandemic risks, they highlight that any actions should be strategically targeted at situations where such trade poses particular risks to human health, biodiversity conservation or animal welfare, and should not exacerbate inequality and poverty. They warn that wholesale, far-reaching bans on wildlife trade not only risk negative social, economic and ecological consequences but may also fail to address other key sources of zoonotic disease risk.