Wild Animal Conservation Law of the People's Republic of China (2022 Revision)

Wild Animal Conservation Law of the People's Republic of China (2022 Revision)

Order of the President of the People's Republic of China

(No. 126)

The Wild Animal Conservation Law of the People's Republic of China, as revised and adopted at the 38th Session of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on December 30, 2022, is hereby issued, and shall come into force on May 1, 2023.

President of the People's Republic of China: Xi Jinping
December 30, 2022

Wild Animal Conservation Law of the People's Republic of China
(Adopted at the 4th Session of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National People's Congress on November 8, 1988; amended for the first time in accordance with the Decision to Amend the Wild Animal Conservation Law of the People's Republic of China adopted at the 11th Session of the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People's Congress on August 28, 2004; amended for the second time in accordance with the Decision to Amend Certain Laws adopted at the 10th Session of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress on August 27, 2009; revised for the first time at the 21st Session of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress on July 2, 2016; amended for the third time in accordance with the Decision to Amend Fifteen Laws Including the Wild Animal Conservation Law of the People's Republic of China adopted at the 6th Session of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress on October 26, 2018; and revised for the second time at the 38th Session of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress on December 30, 2022)

Table of Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Conservation of Wild Animals and Their Habitats
Chapter III Wild Animal Administration
Chapter IV Legal Liability
Chapter V Supplemental Provisions

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 This Law is enacted for the purposes of conserving wild animals, saving rare and endangered species of wild animals, maintaining biological diversity and ecological balance, advancing ecological civilization, and promoting the harmonious co-existence between humanity and nature.

Article 2 The conservation of wild animals and associated activities within the territory of the People's Republic of China and other sea areas under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China shall be governed by this Law.
“Wild animals” conserved in this Law means the rare and endangered species of terrestrial and aquatic wild animals and the terrestrial wild animals of significant ecological, scientific, or social value.
“Wild animals and their products” in this Law means the whole (including spawns and eggs), parts, and derivatives of wild animals.
The conservation of aquatic wild animals other than the rare and endangered species of aquatic wild animals shall be governed by the Fisheries Law of the People's Republic of China and other relevant laws.

Article 3 Wild animal resources are owned by the state.
The state protects the lawful rights and interests of organizations and individuals engaging in wild animal conservation and associated activities such as scientific research and artificial breeding in accordance with the law.

Article 4 The state strengthens the protection and restoration of important ecosystems, applies the principles of “conservation first, regulated utilization, and stringent supervision” to wild animals, encourages and supports the scientific research on and application of wild animals, upholds the philosophy of ecological civilization, and promotes green development.

Article 5 The state conserves wild animals and their habitats. The people's governments at or above the county level shall develop general plans and measures for the conservation of wild animals and their habitats, and include the funding for the conservation of wild animals into their budgets.
The state encourages citizens, legal persons, and other organizations to participate in wild animal conservation activities by donations, financial aids, voluntary services, and other means in accordance with the law, and supports public undertakings for wild animal conservation.
“Wild animal habitats” in this Law means the major areas where the wild populations of wild animals live and breed.

Article 6 All organizations and individuals shall have the obligation to conserve wild animals and their habitats. It shall be prohibited to illegally hunt or transport or trade in wild animals or destruct the habitats of wild animals.
The general public shall enhance their awareness of conserving wild animals and safeguarding public health safety, prevent the spread of wild animal-borne infectious diseases, resist the illegal eating of wild animals, and cultivate a civilized and healthy lifestyle.
All organizations and individuals shall have the right to report violations of this Law. The competent departments of wild animal conservation of the people's governments at or above the county level and other relevant departments shall, in a timely manner, handle the reports in accordance with the law.

Article 7 The competent departments of forestry and grassland and fisheries of the State Council shall respectively take charge of the conservation of terrestrial and aquatic wild animals nationwide.
The local people's governments at or above the county level shall be responsible for the conservation of wild animals within their respective administrative regions, and the competent departments of forestry and grassland and fisheries of the local people's governments at or above the county level shall respectively take charge of the conservation of terrestrial and aquatic wild animals within their respective administrative regions.
The local people's government at or above the county level shall be responsible for the work concerning wild animal conservation according to the division of their functions.

Article 8 The people's governments at all levels shall strengthen the publicity, education, and popularization of science on wild animal conservation, and encourage and support activities of publicity of the laws and regulations on wild animal conservation and the knowledge on ecological protection, among others, conducted by the basic-level people's autonomous organizations, social organizations, enterprises, public institutions, and volunteers; organize the trainings of relevant practitioners on laws and regulations and professional knowledge; and disclose to the public wild animal conservation and administration information in accordance with the law.
Education administrative departments and schools shall provide students with education on wild animal conservation knowledge.
News media shall conduct publicity of the laws and regulations and the knowledge on wild animal conservation, and legally conduct supervision by public opinions against illegal acts.

Article 9 Organizations and individuals that have made remarkable achievements in wild animal conservation or scientific research on wild animals shall be commended and rewarded by the people's governments at or above the county level in accordance with the relevant provisions issued by the state.

Chapter II Conservation of Wild Animals and Their Habitats

Article 10 The state conducts conservation of wild animals by classification and grading.
The state places the rare and endangered species of wild animals under priority conservation. Species of wild animals under state priority conservation are divided into wild animals under Grade-I conservation and wild animals under Grade-II conservation. The list of wild animals under state priority conservation shall be reported by the competent department of wild animal conservation of the State Council to the State Council for approval and publication after organization of scientific demonstration and assessment.
The lists of terrestrial wild animals of significant ecological, scientific, or social value shall be developed and published by the competent department of wild animal conservation of the State Council after request for comments from the agriculture and rural affairs, natural resources, science and technology, ecology and environment, health and other departments of the State Council and organization of scientific demonstration and evaluation.
Wild animals under local priority conservation are wild animals under priority conservation by provinces, autonomous regions, or municipalities directly under the Central Government other than those under state priority conservation. The lists of wild animals under local priority conservation shall be developed and published by the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, or municipalities directly under the Central Government after organization of scientific demonstration evaluation and request for comments from the competent department of wild animal conservation of the State Council.
The lists as mentioned in this Article shall be subject to the demonstration and assessment organized every five years, and be adjusted according to the results of demonstration and assessment, or may be adjusted in a timely manner according to the actual needs for wild animal conservation.

Article 11 The competent departments of wild animal conservation of the people's governments at or above the county level shall strengthen the application of information technologies, organize or authorize relevant scientific research institutions to conduct survey, monitoring, and assessment of the status of wild animals and their habitats on a regular basis, and establish and improve the archives of wild animals and their habitats.
The survey, monitoring, and assessment of the status of wild animals and their habitats shall include the following:
(1) Distribution areas and population sizes and structures in the wild of wild animals.
(2) Areas and ecological status of the habitats of wild animals.
(3) Major factors threatening wild animals and their habitats.
(4) Artificial breeding of wild animals and other circumstances requiring survey, monitoring, and assessment.

Article 12 The competent department of wild animal conservation of the State Council shall, in conjunction with the relevant departments of the State Council, determine and issue the lists of major habitats of wild animals according to the results of the survey, monitoring, and assessment of the status of wild animals and their habitats.
The people's governments at or above the provincial level shall include important habitats of wild animals in national parks, nature reserves and other natural protected areas and protect, restore and improve the living environment of wild animals. Where the conditions for the delimitation of relevant natural protected areas are not met, the people's governments at or above the county level may conserve wild animals and their habitats by delimiting no-hunting (or no-fishing) zones, prescribing closed hunting (or fishing) seasons or taking other measures.
Human disturbances threatening the living and breeding of wild animals, such as introducing alien species into natural protected areas, creating pure forests, and excessively spraying pesticides, shall be prohibited or restricted.
Natural protected areas shall be delimited and administered in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and regulations, and the competent departments of wild animal shall strengthen the conservation of wild animals and their habitats in accordance with the law.

Article 13 The people's governments at or above the county level and the relevant departments shall, during the relevant development and utilization planning, take into full consideration the needs for the conservation of wild animals and their habitats, analyze, predict, and evaluate the possible overall impacts of the implementation of the plans on the conservation of wild animals and their habitats, and avoid or reduce the possible adverse consequences of the implementation of the plans.
It shall be prohibited to construct, in natural protected areas, any projects which are not allowed to be constructed under relevant laws and regulations. The site and line selection for airport, railway, highway, waterway, water conservancy and hydropower, wind power and photovoltaic power generation, cofferdams, sea reclamation, and other construction projects shall avoid natural protected areas and other important habitats and migration routes of wild animals; and if the avoidance thereof is truly impossible, measures such as the construction of migration channels for wild animals and fish passage facilities shall be taken to eliminate or reduce the adverse impacts on wild animals.
Where any construction project may impact natural protected areas or other important habitats or migration routes of wild animals, the departments in charge of approval of environmental impact evaluation documents shall, in the process of approving environmental impact evaluation documents, request comments from the competent department of wild animal conservation of the State Council if wild animals under state priority conservation are involved; or request comments from the competent departments of wild animal conservation of the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, or municipalities directly under the Central Government if wild animals under local priority conservation are involved.

Article 14 The competent departments of wild animal conservation at all levels shall monitor the impacts of environment on wild animals, and if finding that any environmental impact causes harm to wild animals, investigate and handle such impacts in a timely manner in conjunction with the relevant departments.

Article 15 Where the wild animals under state priority conservation, the terrestrial wild animals of significant ecological, scientific, or social value, or the wild animals under local priority conservation are threatened by any natural disaster, major environmental pollution accident, or other emergency, the local people's governments shall take emergency rescue measures in a timely manner.
The state enhances the capabilities of sheltering and rescuing wild animals. The competent departments of wild animal conservation at or above the county level shall organize the sheltering and rescue of wild animals in accordance with the relevant provisions issued by the state, and strengthen the regulation of and guidance on the sheltering and rescue of wild animals.
Sheltering and rescue institutions shall, according to the actual needs for sheltering and rescuing wild animals, build sheltering and rescue places, be staffed with corresponding professional technicians, and be equipped with rescue tools, equipment and medicinal products, among others.
It shall be prohibited to trade in wild animals and their products in the name of sheltering or rescuing wild animals.

Article 16 The monitoring and quarantine of the epidemic sources and epidemic diseases of wild animals and prevention and control management of infectious diseases of animals related to anthropozoonosis shall be governed by the provisions of the Animal Epidemic Prevention Law of the People's Republic of China and other relevant laws and regulations.

Article 17 The state shall strengthen the conservation of genetic resources of wild animals, and conduct rescuing conservation of the endangered species of wild animals.
The competent department of wild animal conservation of the State Council shall, in conjunction with the relevant departments of the State Council, conduct planning on the conservation and utilization of genetic resources of wild animals, establish a national gene bank of genetic resources of wild animals, and implement priority conservation of the genetic resources of rare and endangered species of wild animals originating in China.

Article 18 The relevant local people's governments shall, according to actual circumstances and needs, build isolation and protection facilities and set up safety warning signs, among others, to prevent the damage possibly caused by wild animals.
The competent departments of wild animal conservation of the people's governments at or above the county level shall, according to the results of the survey, monitoring, and assessment of wild animals and their habitats, take population control measures such as translocation of animals for conservation and hunting for the species whose population size obviously exceeds environmental capacity to guarantee personal and property safety, ecological security, and agricultural production. Wild animals hunted for population control shall be treated and comprehensively utilized in accordance with relevant provisions issued by the state. Specific measures for population control shall be developed by the competent department of wild animal conservation of the State Council in conjunction with other relevant departments of the State Council.

Article 19 Where any human casualties or any crop or other property losses are caused by the conservation of wild animals as required to be conserved under this Law, the local people's governments shall make compensation. The specific measures shall be developed by the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, or municipalities directly under the Central Government. The relevant local people's governments may impel insurance institutions to provide insurance compensation for damage caused by wild animals.
The relevant local people's governments shall be subsidized by the central finance for the funding necessary for them to take measures for preventing and controlling the damage caused by wild animals under state priority conservation and other terrestrial wild animals that may cause serious damage and make compensation. The specific measures shall be developed by the finance department of the State Council in conjunction with the competent department of wild animal conservation of the State Council.
Whoever causes any damage to wild animals for taking measures under any emergency circumstance that wild animals may endanger personal safety shall not be held legally liable in accordance with the law.

Chapter III Wild Animal Administration

Article 20 It shall be prohibited to hunt or catch wild animals or otherwise disturb the living and breeding of wild animals within relevant natural protected areas and the no-hunting (or no-fishing) zones or during the closed hunting (or fishing) seasons, except as otherwise specified by laws and regulations.
During the migration periods of wild animals, hunting or catching wild animals shall be prohibited, and activities otherwise disturbing the living and breeding of wild animals shall be strictly restricted, within the migration routes other than the areas prescribed in the preceding paragraph. The people's governments at or above the county level or their competent departments of wild animal conservation shall prescribe and publish the scope of migration routes and the activities disturbing the living and breeding of wild animals.

Article 21 Hunting, catching, or killing wild animals under state priority conservation shall be prohibited.
Where it is necessary to hunt or catch any wild animals under Grade-I state conservation for scientific research, population control, or monitoring of epidemic sources and epidemic diseases or under other special circumstances, an application for a special hunting or catching permit shall be filed with the competent department of wild animal conservation of the State Council. Where it is necessary to hunt or catch any wild animals under Grade-II state conservation, an application for a special hunting or catching permi......