IUCN 14 Jul 09;
Rising demand for pangolins, mostly from mainland China, compounded by lax laws is wiping out the unique toothless anteaters from their native habitats in Southeast Asia, according to a group of leading pangolin experts.
Illegal trade in Asian pangolin meat and scales has caused the scaly anteaters to disappear from large swathes of Cambodia, Viet Nam and Lao PDR, concluded a panel of experts whose findings were announced today by the wildlife trade monitoring network, TRAFFIC, a joint programme between IUCN and WWF.
“China has a long history of consuming pangolin as meat and in traditional medicine,” the report states. “Due to continual demand and the decreasing Chinese wild population, in the past few years pangolin smuggling from Southeast Asia has resulted in great declines in these producing countries’ wild populations, as well.”
Although the animals are protected under national legislation in all Asian range states, and have been prohibited from international trade through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 2002, this legislation is having little impact on the illicit trade.
Pangolins are the most frequently encountered mammals seized from illegal traders in Asia, and are highly unusual in not possessing teeth.
“Pangolins, like the laws designed to protect them, lack bite,” says Chris Shepherd, Acting Director for TRAFFIC Southeast Asia. “Pangolin populations clearly cannot stand the incessant poaching pressure, which can only be stopped by decisive government-backed enforcement action in the region.”
According to pangolin hunters and traders, there are so few pangolins left in forests throughout Cambodia, Viet Nam and Lao PDR, they are now sourcing animals from their last remaining strongholds in Southeast Asia and beyond.
Recent large seizures back up these reports. They include 24 tonnes of frozen pangolins from Sumatra, Indonesia, seized in Viet Nam this March and 14 tonnes of frozen animals seized in Sumatra this April. There have also been recent instances of African pangolins seized in Asia.
“Pangolins save us millions of dollars a year in pest destruction,” says Dr Simon Stuart, Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. “These shy creatures provide a vital service and we cannot afford to overlook their ecological role as natural controllers of termites and ants.”
The key to tackling the pangolin crisis is better enforcement of existing national and international laws designed to protect pangolins, better monitoring of the illegal trade, and basic research to find where viable pangolin populations still exist and whether ravaged populations can recover given adequate protection, according to the report.
The experts on pangolins included scientific researchers, government law enforcement officers from most Asian pangolin range States, CITES Management and Scientific Authorities and animal rescue centres, who convened at a workshop hosted by Wildlife Reserves Singapore at the Singapore Zoo.
For the full report, please visit: http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/pangolin_proceedings_final_print__2_.pdf
For more information, please contact:
* Elizabeth John, Senior Communications Officer, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Tel: +603 7880 3940, jlizzjohn@yahoo.com
* Richard Thomas, Global Communications Co-ordinator, TRAFFIC, Richard.thomas@traffic.org +44 1223 279068.
* Sarah Horsley, Media Relations Officer, IUCN, sarah.horsley@iucn.org, +41 22 999 0127.
* Sarah Janicke, Species Communications Manager, WWF International, sjanicke@wwfint.org, +41 79 528 8641.
Notes to editors:
* ¨TRAFFIC’s work on pangolins was supported by National Geographic and Sea World Bucsh Gardens.
* There are four species of pangolin in Asia; Thick-tailed Pangolin (Manis crassicaudata), Philippine Pangolin (M. culionensis), Sunda Pangolin (M. javanica) and Chinese Pangolin (M. pentadactyla).
* All pangolins in illegal trade are wild-sourced as they cannot be captive bred on a commercial scale.
* In the wild, pangolins breed slowly, producing just one young at a time, making populations particularly vulnerable to over-exploitation.
Toothless laws encourage rising demand for pangolin
WWF 14 Jul 09;
Singapore, 14 July 2009 - Rising demand for pangolins, mostly from mainland China, compounded by lax laws is wiping out the unique toothless anteaters from their native habitats in Southeast Asia, according to a group of leading pangolin experts.
Illegal trade in Asian pangolin meat and scales has caused the scaly anteaters to disappear from large swathes of Cambodia, Viet Nam and Lao PDR, concluded a panel of experts whose findings were announced today by the wildlife trade monitoring network, TRAFFIC.
China has a long history of consuming pangolin as meat and in traditional medicine, the report states. Due to continual demand and the decreasing Chinese wild population, in the past few years pangolin smuggling from Southeast Asia has resulted in great declines in these producing countries wild populations, as well.
Although the animals are protected under national legislation in all Asian range states, and have been prohibited from international trade through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 2002, this legislation is having little impact on the illicit trade.
Pangolins are the most frequently encountered mammals seized from illegal traders in Asia, and are highly unusual in not possessing teeth.
Pangolins, like the laws designed to protect them, lack bite, commented Chris R. Shepherd, Acting Director for TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.
Pangolin populations clearly cannot stand the incessant poaching pressure, which can only be stopped by decisive government-backed enforcement action in the region.
According to pangolin hunters and traders, there are so few pangolins left in forests throughout Cambodia, Viet Nam and Lao PDR, they are now sourcing animals from their last remaining strongholds in Southeast Asia and beyond.
Recent large seizures back up these reports. They include 24 tonnes of frozen pangolins from Sumatra, Indonesia, seized in Viet Nam this March and 14 tonnes of frozen animals seized in Sumatra this April. There have also been recent instances of African pangolins seized in Asia.
Pangolins save us millions of dollars a year in pest destruction, says Dr Simon Stuart, Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. These shy creatures provide a vital service and we cannot afford to overlook their ecological role as natural controllers of termites and ants.
The key to tackling the pangolin crisis is better enforcement of existing national and international laws designed to protect pangolins, better monitoring of the illegal trade, and basic research to find where viable pangolin populations still exist and whether ravaged populations can recover given adequate protection, according to the report.
The experts on pangolins included scientific researchers, government law enforcement officers from most Asian pangolin range States, CITES Management and Scientific Authorities and animal rescue centres, who convened at a workshop hosted by Wildlife Reserves Singapore at the Singapore National Zoo.
TRAFFIC's work on pangolins was supported by National Geographic and Sea World Bucsh Gardens.
Chinese appetites wiping out threatened pangolins
Google News 14 Jul 09;
SINGAPORE (AFP) — China's insatiable demand for pangolins is threatening the survival of the vital pest eaters in Southeast Asia and governments must do more to protect them, experts and activists have warned.
"Due to continual demand and the decreasing Chinese wild population, in the past few years pangolin smuggling from Southeast Asia has resulted in great declines in these producing countries' wild populations," wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC said in a report.
"China has a long history of consuming pangolin as meat and in traditional medicine," it said. The animals are toothless, scaly mammals that provide natural pest control in the wild by eating ants and termites.
"Pangolin populations clearly cannot stand the incessant poaching pressure, which can only be stopped by decisive government-backed enforcement action in the region," said Chris Shepherd, Acting Director for TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.
The solution is better enforcement of national and international laws designed to protect the animals, improved monitoring of the illegal trade and more research on existing pangolin populations, TRAFFIC said.
A spokeswoman for TRAFFIC told AFP that no estimates of the remaining pangolin populations were available, but the report noted that they are the most frequently encountered mammals seized from illegal traders in Asia.
TRAFFIC quoted hunters and traders as saying there are so few pangolins left in forests in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos that they are now sourcing the animals from their last remaining strongholds in Southeast Asia and beyond.
Authorities seized 24 tonnes of frozen pangolins from Sumatra, Indonesia, in Vietnam in March 2008 and 14 tonnes of frozen animals in Sumatra four months later. African pangolins have also been seized in Asia, TRAFFIC said.
"Pangolins save us millions of dollars a year in pest destruction," said Simon Stuart, who chairs the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
"These shy creatures provide a vital service and we cannot afford to overlook their ecological role as natural controllers of termites and ants."
More links
PANGOLIN PHOTOS: Fetus Soup, Other "Cures" Drive Trade, some graphic photos on the National Geographic website.
