Illegal trade scaled down, for now
Group: Pangolin seizures drop during Covid-19 pandemic but poaching still rampant
PETALING JAYA: The seizure of pangolins being traded illegally in Asia saw a drop during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the reduction does not mean poaching has decreased, says Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring group.
According to Traffic’s latest analysis of confiscations in the region released on World Pangolin Day yesterday, pangolin seizures dipped from 2020 to 2021, with some 233 seizures recorded, involving 13,389kg of scales and 247 individual animals.
In comparison, some of the largest confiscations, mostly involving African pangolin scales, took place from 2017 to 2019, with more than 609 busts in Asia that allowed the recovery of 244,600kg of scales and 10,971 individual animals.
The report revealed that the drop in seizures was due to shutdowns and global disruptions in transportation as a result of Covid-19, rather than an actual drop in poaching.
Director for Traffic in Southeast Asia, Kanitha Krishnasamy, said the lower seizure numbers should be treated with caution as it may only be temporary.
“As borders reopen and international commerce picks up, so will trafficking levels, and hopefully detection levels too,” she said, adding that evidence of large-scale pangolin seizures since 2020 continues, particularly of shipments seized in Africa en route to Asia.
Traffic said that from 2015 to 2021, a total of 21,857 whole pangolins from both Asia and Africa, and their associated parts, which totalled over 330 tonnes, were seized in Asia.
A large portion (91%) of the 333.5 tonnes found in Asia were seized in mainland China (93.5 tonnes), followed by Vietnam (70.3 tonnes), Hong Kong (56.8 tonnes), Malaysia (54.4 tonnes) and Singapore (29.1 tonnes).
More than half the weight of pangolins and parts seized in Asia originated from Africa.
Krishnasamy, when contacted yesterday, said it is crucial that enforcement and intelligence-led investigations be held to identify the poachers, traffickers, middlemen and traders to curb the illicit trade.
She said Malaysia’s top priority should be protecting pangolins in the country.
“There are people in Malaysia who are the masterminds behind the collection and trade of Sunda pangolins, so we need to put all the effort that we can to find these individuals and take action against them,” she said.
She added that the illicit pangolin trade in the country was largely discovered in Sabah, with the largest confiscation made in February 2019 by the Sabah police and state Wildlife Department, where close to 30 tonnes of pangolin were seized from two major processing facilities in Kota Kinabalu and Tamparuli.
She said the use of pangolin scales for traditional medicine is probably relatively small in Malaysia compared to other countries such as those in the Mekong region and East Asia, where pangolin scales are turned into powder for medicinal purposes.
“In Malaysia, we have also found pangolin meat for sale, with the Wildlife Department in Peninsular Malaysia having confiscated pangolin meat in restaurants over the years, showing that the exotic meat trade is also a big problem across Asia,” she said.
Three of Asia’s pangolins species are classified as “critically endangered” due to trade threats.
This includes the Philippine pangolin (Manis culionensis), the Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica), and the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla).
Traffic said that since 2019, all pangolin species have been prohibited from commercial international trade, but criminal networks continue to source for and traffic pangolins in alarming numbers.