Environmental justice and the post-COVID-19 regulation of wildlife trade and markets

Abstract

This article argues that an environmental justice framework should be used to inform the post-COVID-19 regulation of wildlife trade to ensure that justice is afforded to communities and nations reliant on this trade. This argument is offered in response to the pattern of interventionism and dominance in the international regulation of wildlife trade. We respond both to a historical pattern of denied justice, and to a recent increase in calls for the closure of live animal markets, which has the future potential to deny justice. We utilize a multifaceted and pluralist environmental justice theory to highlight where injustice has occurred in the regulation of wildlife trade. Each element of this theory is applied in three case studies (bird species trade, ivory trade and pangolin trade) to highlight how injustice has occurred, linking each to the COVID-19 context. Finally, to disrupt this pattern of dominance, we implore researchers, governments and policymakers to alter their discourse and to move political action from interventionism to a support-based, collaborative role, to ensure that environmental justice is afforded to the communities and states reliant on wildlife trade.