The United States will work more closely with China to curb the illegal trade in wild animals and wildlife products, a senior US official told a press conference in Beijing.

Claudia McMurray, assistant secretary of the bureau of oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs, told China Daily: "No one government or private group can combat this sophisticated criminal activity alone and hope to succeed.

"The United States looks forward to China joining the Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking," she said.

The Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) is also seeking the opportunity to work with China, she said.

Law enforcement networks have had "success in rescuing and returning live animals to their native countries and have disrupted several groups involved in wildlife trafficking", McMurray said.

The trade in illegal wildlife products rivals drugs and arms trafficking in terms of the money made.

"Endangered animals are the new blood diamonds," she said.

"Wildlife trafficking is closely linked with organized crime. Estimates of the value of this illegal trade range between $10 million and $20 million a year," she said.

Such trafficking has pushed many species to the edge of extinction, and it also poses severe health threats to humans, as diseases like bird flu, SARS, the Ebola virus and tuberculosis, can be carried and transmitted by animals, McMurray said.

But cooperating to catch the traffickers is only part of the solution, she said. The US and China must also work together to stamp out demand for animal products through better public education.

"Some consumers buy these products when they travel abroad, or source them over the Internet but they think what they are buying is perfectly legal," McMurray said.

Peter Knights, executive director of Wild Aid, said at Tuesday's press conference that wildlife trafficking is a global problem, but the US and China should take the lead.

"Cooperation between the two countries has to be on a long-term basis, but I have seen their shared interest and they are moving in the right direction," he said.

Under Chinese law, anyone found guilty of hunting or trading wild animals under national protection can be jailed for up to 10 years.

Last year, police handled more than 172,000 cases involving the destruction of wildlife and forest resources, and rescued about 1.5 million wild animals from poachers.
 

Questions:

1 Which two countries are working together to curb the illegal trade of wildlife?

2 According to Claudia McMurray, what diseases can be transmitted from animals to humans?

3 How many wild animals were rescued from poachers in China last year?

Answers:

1. United States and China.

2. Bird flu, SARS, the Ebola virus and tuberculosis.

3. 1.5 million.