The municipal government will launch a series of programmes this month to raise awareness of the importance of wild animal protection among citizens and to hone the consciousness of the public on the issue of wildlife protection.

The programmes include an official wildlife protection day on November 24, and a wildlife protection contest for the city's young people which starts on November 20.

"Wild animal protection is by no means a duck-soup issue," said Guo Qinghe, deputy director of the Guangzhou Forestry Bureau.

"We will take a more iron-handed approach to protect wild animals in the coming days."

A city long famous for delicacies, Guangzhou is paradise for diners but hell for wild animals.

Sources say that restaurants in Guangzhou used to kill 20 tons of snakes and 20,000 birds every day.

According to officials, the municipal authorities will keep a closer eye on any attempt to poach wild animals, and will impose strict punishments on any die-hard. These could entail fines as high as 100,000 yuan (US$12,000) or even criminal penalties.

And those found guilty of dining on the meat of wild animals, especially species under State-protection, will face a fine as high as 10,000 yuan (US$1,200) if they knew the meat was illegally procured.

As of July 1, Guangzhou had been prohibiting wild animal poaching for five years.

(China Daily November 18, 2002)