One hundred NGOs call on WHO to adjust its Traditional Medicine strategy   

IUCN NL, together with Stichting SPOTS and Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), initiated a letter to be sent to the Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) raising their concerns that the WHO has still not recognised how demand for, and promotion of, wildlife use in some traditional medicine is leading to legal and illegal trade that significantly threatens the survival of a range of wild animal species^[1]Source: Alves, R.R.N. and Rosa, I.L. (2013) ‘A Global Overview of Carnivores Used in Traditional Medicines’, in Animals in Traditional Folk Medicine: Implications for Conservation, pp. 1–491. … Continue reading^[2]Source: Williams, V.L. et al. (2017) ‘A roaring trade? The legal trade in Panthera leo bones from Africa to East-Southeast Asia’. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185996.. One hundred NGOs from across the world co-signed this appeal to the WHO underlining the shared global concern amongst conservation organisations of the impact of traditional medicine using parts of threatened wild animal species.  

Header photo: Pangolin scales (c) Britta Jaschinski / IUCN NL

WHO strategy on traditional medicine does not acknowledge impact on wildlife species

During the next General Assembly of the WHO in May, its members will discuss the draft global traditional medicine strategy (2025-2034). While many traditional medicines use natural ingredients including minerals, plants and animals in their practices, the parts and derivatives of wild animals constitutes a relatively small portion of all ingredients used^[3]Source: Still, J. (2003) ‘Use of animal products in traditional Chinese medicine: environmental impact and health hazards’, Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 11(2), pp. 118–122. Available … Continue reading^[4]Source: Williams, V.L. and Whiting, M.J. (2016) ‘A picture of health? Animal use and the Faraday traditional medicine market, South Africa’, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 179, pp. 265–273. … Continue reading, and that of threatened^[5]Categorised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered. wild animals an even smaller extent, with substitutes of alternative species or materials readily available^[6]Source: TAWAP. (2021). TCM Alternatives to Wild Animal Preparations. [online] Available at: https://tawap.org/ [Accessed 17 Feb. 2025]. However, such usage still has a significant effect. Due to marketing by traders and pharmaceutical companies, as well as legislative loopholes in some key countries that continue to permit the trade and utilisation of vulnerable species^[7]EIA UK. (2023). China’s revised Wildlife Protection Law goes live – but it’s a missed chance to help endangered species. [online] Available at: … Continue reading, traditional medicine exerts disproportionally devastating impacts on the survival of many species including big cats such as tigers and leopards, pangolins, rhinos, bears, saiga antelope and more^[8]Source: IUCN (2024). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. [online] IUCN Red List. Available at: https://www.iucnredlist.org/..

Motion IUCN on Traditional Medicine

The International Union of Conservation of Nature adopted a motion on traditional medicine during its world conservation congress in 2020. In this motion, it notes that the trade in many species used in traditional medicine is poorly regulated and is putting pressures on wildlife populations in many countries and regions, which may also prevent the sustainable use of traditional medicine. This is why IUCN called in this motion on its members to support the prevention of the use in traditional medicine of threatened species of wildlife assessed in IUCN Red List categories Endangered or higher, or which are considered Data Deficient. It also called for its members to assist in the development of sustainable alternatives to the use of wildlife in traditional medicine to protect wildlife populations and achieve sustainability. This motion is not reflected by the WHO in its strategy, whilst IUCN is the global authority on the status of the natural world.  

(Il)legal wildlife trafficking and Traditional Medicines 

According to the Traffic report from 2021 on seizures of CITES-listed wildlife in the EU in 2021, the most frequently seized commodity type was medicinals (plant-and animal-derived medicinals which comprises medicines, extracts and cosmetics); accounting for 27% of the total 2021 seizures. Animal-derived medicinals in 2021 accounted for 17% of the medicinals trade. These seizures show that there is a substantial illegal trade in medicinals. Reports on the seizure of pangoline scales also make clear that there is a substantial illegal trade in parts of threatened wild animal species for traditional medicine.    

However, legal use also does not automatically equate to ecologically sustainable use. Investigations and research have indicated that utilisation or legal domestic trade in threatened species for traditional medicine, including in parts and derivatives of captive bred specimens, is a high-risk approach that exacerbates the threat they face in the wild^[9]See for example EIA. 2013. Hidden in Plain Sight: China’s clandestine tiger trade. Available from: https://eia-international.org/wp- … Continue reading.

‘The promotion of traditional medicines by the WHO without clearly speaking out against the use of threatened wild animal species poses a serious risk to the survival of these already (severely) threatened species,’ says Antoinette Sprenger, senior expert environmental justice at IUCN NL. 

Call on WHO

Any recognition from an entity of the WHO’s stature without a strong statement on the use of threatened wild animals in traditional medicine will be perceived by the global community as a stamp of approval from the United Nations on the overall practice including such utilisation. Failure to specifically reject the use of threatened wild animal species in traditional medicine will hence sustain the demand for these species, exacerbating the pressure on their survival amidst the biodiversity crisis, and also undermine One Health. 

Biodiversity is essential for One Health and the wellbeing of humankind. As the world’s leading global public health organisation, the WHO should set an example and: 

• Recognise that any use of threatened wild animal species for medicine is unsustainable; 

• Explicitly reject such use in TCIM; 

• Call on WHO members to remove threatened wild animal species ingredients and products from their pharmacopoeia^[10]A compendium of texts on the qualitative and quantitative composition of medicines, and on the tests to be carried out on medicines, on the raw materials used in the production of medicines and on … Continue reading