Don't Mess with Nature

Economists estimate the economic fall out from the COVID-19 virus pandemic could approach $10 trillion dollars, or around one eighth of global GDP. A letter to the World Health Organisation this week, signed by almost 250 organisations, points to a solution. A massive crackdown on wildlife trade markets worldwide. It is time to call out this health crisis for what it is - a by-product of the US$ billion trade in environmental crime.


When seeking the origins of this COVID-19 crisis, we need to look less into human health, but into the collective blindness among regulators and within the financial sector of the huge dependencies the global economy has on biodiversity, and the devastating impacts on us all when our effect on these dependencies, becomes increasingly unsustainable. COVID-19 is nature’s $10 trillion dollar bite back, and this is just the beginning