Click on image for larger version.Thanks to the work of our colleagues at LAGA (the Last Great Ape Organization) in central Cameroon, the president of a local hunting association was one of three traffickers recently arrested with giant pangolin scales and meat, as well as a Colobus monkey. As we celebrate World Pangolin Day on February 21, 2015, this is a sad reminder of the plight of this largely unknown, but massively traded, animal.[teaserbreak]
The thriving illegal trade in pangolins has been escalating in recent years due to demand from eastern Asia. Just this week, Hong Kong customs officials reported the seizure of a ton of pangolin scales shipped from Kenya. This and similar incidents strongly suggest that, as Asia’s four pangolin species grow rarer and harder to track down, traffickers have turned their attention to Africa, where another four species exist.
Like all pangolin species, the giant pangolin (Smutsia gigantea) is facing a decreasing population trend. Together with Africa’s three other pangolin species, the giant pangolin was recently reclassified from ‘near threatened’ to ‘vulnerable.’ The giant pangolin is one of the more commonly traded African pangolins.
The seizure in which LAGA was involved also highlights the sinister link between legal big game hunting and illegal wildlife trade. The group’s illegal activities had been known for some time, but no action had been taken due to corruption amongst local officials. The hunting association president had been found poaching and trading wildlife in 2014, but was not charged.
Also in Cameroon in January, another ape trafficker was arrested with 18 skulls. High level corruption was also exposed in Congo, where a lawyer for the Ministry of Forests was arrested at an airport with a leopard skin—thanks to LAGA’s sister enforcement project, AALF (Appui a l’Application de la Loi sur la Faune).
This is just a sample of the 24 arrests of major wildlife traffickers across five countries in January by the EAGLE Network (Eco Activists for Governance and Law Enforcement), of which LAGA and AALF are member projects. With more than 200kg of ivory seized this month alone, these brave and dedicated teams are at the forefront of controlling the rampant illegal wildlife trade in West and central Africa. You can read more in their January 2015 report.
Read updates about our Last Great Ape project.
See the Last Great Ape Organization project’s photo gallery.
