Over Seven Tons of Pangolin Scales Seized in Years
The 8th annual World Pangolin Day was celebrated throughout
the country on February 16, 2019. Activities to mark the day included
sensitization to draw public awareness to the plight of the pangolins that is
facing existential threats.
According
statistics from wildlife law enforcement body LAGA, the organization has
assisted wildlife officials in the seizure of 7.5 tons of pangolin scales
during the past five years. 55 people were arrested during operations leading
to the seizures. While some
are facing trial at the moment, the majority have received varying prison
sentences and fines.
Last
year, an international network comprising four countries; Nigeria, Cameroon,
CAR and DRC, was dismantled in Douala with over 700kg of scales seized and six
traffickers arrested. In January 2017, an illegal shipment of 5 tons of
pangolin scales that was on the verge of being exported was seized from a two
Chinese nationals who were arrested, tried and sent to prison.
Faced
with increasing illegal trade, pangolin enthusiasts, conservationists and the
entire world shall next Saturday celebrate the World Pangolin Day. The alarming
and sudden spikes in the illegal trade in pangolin scales is unsettling many
conservationists who fully understand the devastation this is causing pangolin
populations. According to Francis NchembiTarla, a wildlife specialist and
coordinator of a bushmeat network called CABAG: “three years after the CITES
meeting in Johannesburg, there are still large seizures in Asia of African
scales”. After the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species
(CITES) meeting that held in Johannesburg in 2016 and upgraded the animal to a
class of totally protected species, the government of Cameroon followed suit
immediately and reclassified all three species of pangolins in the country to
totally protected status. But the butchering is ongoing and Tarla agreed: “In
most local restaurants, pangolin meat is openly offered on the menu. At road
points on the major highways, live pangolins are openly sold”.
In
recent years, governments, institutions and organisations have been frantically
initiating measures and structures for pangolin conservation following the
realization that not much had been done to save the species. On the occasion of
the World Pangolin Day and to face the ever-growing conservation challenges,
pangolin lovers and conservationists shall be meeting, under the auspices of
TRAFFIC – a global wildlife trade monitoring network, to create a pangolin
working group that shall specifically target measures aimed at the protecting
the animal in the country. This is just one of the ways experts in the sector
are trying to come to terms with the problem and Tarla declared: “Our task is
still immense and we need to build a lot more capacity and triple our
sensitization campaigns to reduce demand”.
Apart from
the tracking and arrest of pangolin scales traffickers, The Ministry of
Forestry and Wildlife in February 2017, burnt over three tons of pangolin
scales that were seized during wildlife law enforcement operations in recent
years. It was the first time pangolin scales were publicly destroyed in Africa
and is part of government’s strategy to intensify the fight against pangolin
scales trafficking by sending a strong message of zero tolerance.
Pangolins
are considered to be the most trafficked mammals in the world and the growing
demand for the scales in China and other Asian countries have seen prices
sharply increase posing serious threats to the animal whose populations are
rapidly declining in range states across Africa and Asia. They are not only poached
for their meat but equally for their scales.
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