A GROUP of Chinese youth have embarked on an international tour to end the illicit trade of wildlife, especially by their Asian counterparts.
BY Staff Reporter
The 10 youth in their early 20s under the organisation, China House, are travelling across the continent, discouraging their nationals from illegally trading in wildlife and related products as this was tarnishing their country’s image.
“Our vision is to see Chinese people living in harmony with anyone and we are advocating to them not to be involved in illicit trade of wildlife. This is a determination that we have because we have observed that the number of wildlife is diminishing due to illegal trade,” the group leader Ziyuan Lin said.
The youth have also so far travelled to Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa meeting with their countrymen, appealing to them not to be involved in illicit trade of ivory and rhino poaching among other activities.
“We started this initiative after we realised that the number of Chinese nationals being implicated in this business was rising and from our interactions with these Chinese people, we have realised that a number of them do not know that it is illegal to trade in some of these things, some do no not know how to make their trade legal,” she said.
The group said so far in Zimbabwe, they have engaged more than 100 people who have signed a pledge not to be involved in the illicit trade.
