Top-level international protection for pangolins

A UNANIMOUS vote. Then, a chorus of loud cheers and applause to protect all eight species of the “most trafficked mammal” you’ve probably never heard of – the pangolin, or scaly ant-eater.

This week, the littleknown endangered creature, found in Asia and Africa, secured top-level international protection from the illicit trade in its parts that is driving it towards extinction at Cites CoP17 in Sandton, with support for its uplisting on Appendix 1.

This forbids international commercial trade and gives its 19 range states the power to increase their protection. Until now, pangolins have been listed on Cites’ Appendix II, which allows restricted commercial trade.

The problem for pangolins is that they are covered with overlapping scales made of keratin, the protein that forms human hair and finger nails – and rhino horn. Both Asian and African pangolin species are threatened by international trafficking, primarily for use of their scales for traditional medicine and as a luxury food item, say conservationists.

In South Africa, and in other parts of Africa, Raymond Jansen, the chairman of the African Pangolin Working Group, explains they are being decimated for traditional medicine and bushmeat, and are also killed in game fence electrocutions.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has found that between 2013 and 2016 about 18 500kg of pangolin scales were seized from illegal shipments originating from African countries, representing between 5 100 and 39 000 individual pangolins, depending on the species harvested. The largest pangolins have heavier scales, but more of the smaller pangolins are hunted.

More than 1 million pangolins, which are usually very long-lived, are believed to have been slaughtered in the past decade. – Sheree Bega