nagpur the taking of animals for wild meat consumption within national borders has significant impact on most terrestrial species protected under the convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals cms according to a new report released on tuesday the report is the first of its kind and covered 105 cms speciesthe report found that wild meat is often a key use and a major driver for legal and illegal hunting particularly of ungulates and primates and especially during times of conflict or famine and in the course of landuse change this has led to drastic declines and extinctions of several migratory terrestrial mammal populationsthe report states that 70 of hunted cms terrestrial mammal species are used for wild meat consumption and 67 of the 105 species studied were recorded as hunted of these 67 species the largest intended use 47 species was for wild meat consumption other hunting purposes identified were for cultural reasons medicinal use humanwildlife conflict unintentional take and sporttrophy huntingfashionglobal attention to wildlife taking has largely focused on international trade however the report found that the vast majority of taking of cms species for wild meat consumption is driven by direct use or domestic trade this has major implications for international and national efforts to protect vulnerable and endangered species overall 34 of 99 species with an iucn red list assessment were reported as used at the subsistence level direct use 27 were traded nationally and 22 were traded internationally when all types of use were considered however when only meat for consumption was considered 27 species out of 99 were reported as consumed for subsistence 10 species for the national wild meat trade and only two species for the international wild meat trade cms executive secretary amy fraenkel noted this report indicates for the first time a clear and urgent need to focus on domestic use of protected migratory species of wild animals across their range we need to ensure that domestic laws and enforcement efforts are able to tackle this major threat to cms speciesthe report also examined the link between the taking of species for wild meat with the risk of zoonotic diseases there is strong evidence that zoonotic disease outbreaks are linked to human activities wild meat taking and consumption has been identified as the direct and causative agent for the spillover into humans for monkeypox virus sars sudan ebola virus and zaire ebola virus with subsequent humantohuman transmission in total 60 zoonotic viral pathogens were reported as hosted by the 105 migratory species studied as we seek to shift towards sustainable global food systems it is critical that the use of wild species for food is both legal and sustainable the covid19 pandemic has taught us that the overexploitation of nature comes at a heavy cost we urgently need to depart from businessasusual in so doing we can save many species from the brink of extinction and protect ourselves from future outbreaks of zoonotic diseases said inger andersen executive