Pangolins headed for extinction, in part due to booming Asian demand
Conservationists say illegal trade has anteaters headed for extinction, with scales in demand to help women lactate and to cure skin disorders
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 18 September, 2014, 8:07pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 18 September, 2014, 8:07pm
Reuters in Dakar and Libreville
Slaughtered pangolins found in an underground garage in Guangzhou last week. Trade in the creatures is booming in Africa. Photo: Reuters
Alongside dirt roads twisting through the dense tropical forests of Gabon, the scaly bodies of lifeless long-snouted pangolins dangle from sticks stuck in the ground by hunters.
The pangolin, a mammal that looks like an anteater but has an armour of tough scales, has long been prized in central Africa as a bushmeat delicacy.
But growing demand for it from Asia, where pangolin scales are used in medicine to help women lactate and to cure skin disorders, now threatens to hasten its demise and rob African countries of a precious resource.
A giant pangolin in the wild in a Gabon park. Photo: Reuters
Conservationists say the boom is due to declining wild populations in Asia as well as high numbers of Chinese workers in Africa's remote interior.
The example of Africa's elephants, whose numbers have been slashed by demand from Asia for their ivory, have prompted a push to protect the pangolin.
"It's always been ivory but the new pressure is on the pangolin," said Lee White, the British-born head of Gabon's national parks agency, which runs the 13 national parks covering 10 per cent the country's territory.
"We're looking out for workers here putting out orders for pangolin and we've had to train sniffer dogs at the ports."
The shy and near-sighted pangolins only venture out from the safety of their burrows or tree-top homes at night hunting insects. When startled, they curl up into a ball, which won't save them from cable snares set by local trackers.
All eight of the world's species of pangolin, which range from 30cm to 100 cm in length, are threatened with extinction.
Until recently, African exports were thought to have been small- scale, but so far this year, more than six tonnes of African pangolin scales have been seized before export to Asia, more than the combined total of all previous seizures.
Cameroon seized 1.5 tonnes at Yaounde airport in June, according to senior customs department official Etienne Tabi Mbang. Other shipments were intercepted from Kenya, Sierra Leone and South Africa.
Cameroon has also organised workshops to educate customs officials at air and sea ports in identifying and seizing pangolin shipments.
But while conservationists praise the work of some African governments, they say tougher local legislation is required to protect them. Gabon has three pangolin species but only one, the giant pangolin, is protected from hunters. Even so, it is still served in local restaurants.
"Despite Gabon being one of the better students in terms of protecting the environment, the penalties for infringements are far from being dissuasive," said Eric Arnhem of the Wildlife Conservation Society of Gabon.
In the capital, Libreville, pangolin meat is popular with the local elite. The meat is served in the chic Montee de Louis district with cassava or banana for up to 10,000 francs (HK$150) a plate, expensive compared with other dishes.
