Safety Across Asia For The Global Environment (SAFE):
China is not participating in a United Nations project called Safety Across Asia for the Global Environment (SAFE) to survey high-risk facilities, including Asian wet markets, that may cause the spread of infectious diseases from animals to humans.
- Also, Vietnam and Laos have yet to approve the surveys.
- The project aims to prevent future pandemics due to zoonotic, or animal-to-human, disease transmission.
- Launched in 2021 and will run until 2024.
- Coordinated by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime which monitors illegal wildlife trafficking
- Funded by the European Union
- Four Asian countries China, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos were initially selected for the survey under the project
- It is believed that the strain of coronavirus that caused the COVID-19 disease was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan’s wet market in December 2019.
- China has since banned the sale and consumption of food from wildlife animals.
