Richard Branson targets Chinese shark ban
- By Jack Preston -
- Oct 16, 2012
Richard Branson has urged the Chinese government to follow the example set by Central American countries, hoping to see a blanket ban on shark finning introduced in the region.
Last week the Virgin Group Founder travelled to Costa Rica with the OceanElders, where he joined President Laura Chinchilla in counter-signing an Executive Degree which effectively bought an end to shark trading in the country.
“It’s fantastic news, they have now a complete ban on importation, exportation and transportation of fins and as a result of the decree which has been signed - Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador have all agreed to follow suit,” explained Branson to CNBC.
“This means the whole of central America will now ban shark finning, there were one and a half million sharks a week that were slaughtered for their fins, this is a big step in the right direction to bringing an end to this barbaric activity which was really in danger of completely decimating a lot of shark species around the world.”
Despite this success Branson has been keen to point out that it is far from mission accomplished, explaining the importance of getting China to take similar action: “We’re now working on getting the Chinese on-board, Yao Ming the basketball player is very outspoken against this. I think as a result of big celebrities likes this speaking out we could see some big changes, the Chinese government has just banned the serving of shark soup in state banquets.”
“Obviously what we’re hoping for is that the Chinese government will introduce a blanket ban across their country, that would ultimately be the way to stop it. There’s now growing numbers of young people who are free to blog and tweet about this issue, there’s a growing momentum there so we have to keep up the pressure.”
If you would like to learn more about their work, visit the OceanElders website.
By Jack Preston. Senior Content Executive. Tweets at @JackPressedOn
