Seized pangolins might have returned to illegal market

WWF 9 Jan 09;

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Wildlife trade monitors say they are alarmed by the possibility that seized pangolins and pangolin scales went back on the illegal market soon after they were auctioned in Vietnam.

In December, Vietnamese customs officials in Cai Lan seaport, Quang Ninh, Vietnam seized 4,400kg of frozen pangolins and 900kg of pangolin scales in similar packaging to pangolins seized early last year that went up for auction in October.

Pangolins – also known as Scaly Anteaters – are the most commonly seized illegally trafficked mammals in east and south-east Asia with an estimated 100,000 a year required to satisfy Chinese demand for scales for traditional medicinal uses. Last October, pangolins were elevated from a near threatened to an endangered status in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List assessment.

“Selling off the seized pangolins sent out entirely the wrong message,” said Sulma Warne, Greater Mekong Programme Co-ordinator of TRAFFIC, the IUCN and WWF wildlife trade monitoring network.

“While it was permissible under Vietnamese law, it undermined the very enforcement efforts that led to the seizure, for which the government received much-deserved praise.

“This latest seizure in Quang Ninh re-affirms the need to destroy all seized wildlife products, as sell-offs such as the one in October only help to increase demand for pangolins in the region. We call on the authorities to think carefully about how they deal with the seized pangolins in this case.”

At the time of their initial seizure, pangolins had been shipped from Indonesiaand were en route to China. TRAFFIC expressed concern at the plans to auction the seizure, drawing attention to Indonesia’s destruction of meat and scales from a July 2000 raid on a warehouse that resulted in the seizure of nearly 14 tonnes of frozen pangolin and the arrest of 14 suspects.

A lack of transparency on the auction outcome has hampered inquiries into where the pangolins had gone, although it is understood they had been transferred to the winning bidder.

“With this new seizure, Viet Nam has another chance to make good on their progress towards protecting pangolins by following the positive example from Indonesia,” said Chris Shepherd, Senior Programme Officer for TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.

Commercial international trade in pangolins is banned under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). The illegal trade sees pangolins harvested mostly in Malaysiaand Indonesiaand trafficked through the Greater Mekong region for consumption mostly in China, but also increasingly in Viet Nam.

Viet Namand Indonesiaare members of ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN), a partnership that seeks to end illegal cross-border wildlife trade in the region.

Local hunters throughout Southeast Asiareport that pangolins are becoming increasingly scarce.

“There is a crucial need to move pangolin conservation up the political agenda,” said Shepherd. “It’s now or never for pangolins.”

Watchdog urges Vietnam to destroy, not sell, seized illegal wildlife
Yahoo News 9 Jan 09;

HANOI (AFP) – Wildlife trade monitors urged Vietnam on Friday to destroy rather than sell on seized illegal animals.

The TRAFFIC network said a China-bound shipment of pangolins, or scaly anteaters, from Indonesia seized by Vietnamese customs early last year may have re-entered the market after authorities auctioned the smuggled goods.

Two months after the October auction in the northern port of Haiphong, Vietnamese customs officials last month seized a similar five-tonne (ton) shipment in another port close to the Chinese border, said TRAFFIC.

"The proximity of the two events, as well as the similarity in the size and packaging, has called into question the origin of the newly seized pangolins, with some speculating the shipment may have at least partially been sourced from the pangolins auctioned in October 2008," said the group.

The latest seizure "reaffirms the need to destroy all seized wildlife products, as sell-offs such as the one in October only help increase demand for pangolins in the region", said TRAFFIC Mekong region coordinator Sulma Warne.

At least 100,000 pangolins, mostly from Malaysia and Indonesia, are smuggled into China every year for use in traditional medicine, said the group.

Pangolins -- listed as endangered since last year by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) -- are the most frequently seized mammals in the illegal Asian wildlife trade, said TRAFFIC.