#Illegal

Scales from 11,000 Pangolins Seized in Hong Kong from Nigeria

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Nigeria – The Nigerian Minister of Environment, Ibrahim Usman Jibril, has opened an investigation into the seizure by the Hong Kong Customs Service of 7,100 kilos of pangolins scales – representing approximately 11,000 pangolins, according to Pangolin Conservation. “The Ministry has initiated the investigation of the reported illegal trade by communicating officially with the Hong Kong CITES Management Authority with a view of furnishing the documents that will be forwarded to INTERPOL for further investigation.”, […]

Sabah Wants Pangolins to be Totally Protected Species

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KOTA KINABALU, Aug 29 ― The Sabah government will urgently seek to upgrade the protection status of pangolins in the state to Totally Protected. State Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said there was a pressing need to raise the status to send a strong message to poachers and wildlife traffickers that the state was serious in tackling the problem. “Enough is enough. It’s been a long time coming now, but Sabah Wildlife […]

China: Hong Kong Authorities Hunt for Pangolin Smuggling Suspects

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Hong Kong police and customs officers in an anti-smuggling operation confiscated HK$1.45 million worth of pangolin, an endangered species and a Chinese delicacy, into the city on Monday. The law enforcement agencies mounted a joint operation to combat smuggling activities in Sai Kung and Tseung Kwan O at about 2.30pm Monday, amid the rising number of smugglers at sea. Officers took enforcement action after spotting six people loading goods onto a speedboat at Che Keng […]

African White-Bellied Tree Pangolin

GOOD NEWS: Pangolin DNA Database is Being Developed to Combat Smuggling

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This week at the IUCN conference it was announced that the Center for Conservation Biology, at the University of Washington in Seattle, was awarded a grant as part of the USAID Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge. One of 4 grand prize winners. Sam Wasser, Ph.D., and graduate student Hyeon Jong Kim will develop non-invasive genetic tests. Which will allow field researchers to identify what populations and regions poached pangolins originated from. These tests can be instrumental to […]

I Am a Human Being, Capable of Doing Beautiful Things

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For the past 24 hours, I’ve had this song on repeat. “I am a human being, capable of doing beautiful things.”, continues to pierce my ears while I write this. The follow up lyrics, “There’s lightning striking all over the world.”, is just a reminder of why I have to have those first lyrics repeated. When you work in the field of conservation, self-doubt is frequent. Self-doubt appears when you’re attacked by competing interests, questioning […]

LARGEST Known Seizure of Pangolin Scales, It’s Devastating!

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Pangolin Conservation – 16,093 lbs (7,300 kg) of pangolin scales from Nigeria were seized today in Hong Kong (an autonomous territory of China), according to customs officials. The valuable of the pangolin scales was reported as $1,805,182 US dollars (14 million Hong Kong Dollars). They were found on a cargo shipped in the Kwai Chung Customhouse Cargo Examination Compound and declared as “660 bags of recycled plastic particles”. Customs officials found that 259 bags contained pangolin scales of […]

Forensics Expertise Brought to Train Scientists on Pangolin DNA to Help ID Smuggled Products

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Pretoria, South Africa 4th July 2016—Scientists from Malaysia, Thailand, VietNam, Indonesia, South Korea, Australia and the United Kingdom as well as the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) law enforcement attaché for Southern Africa, last week visited the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa (NZG) to learn about the wildlife DNA casework being undertaken to help crack cases with international ramifications. The need for international forensics collaboration was highlighted by the seizure the previous […]

Good News! Report on Pangolin Poaching Jolts State into Action – India

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Taking a serious note of the rising number of pangolin poaching cases, the state government has decided to launch a crackdown on poachers and traffickers. DNA had reported on Saturday how the illegal wildlife trade is thriving in the state. A huge collection of pangolin scales was also seized in Ratnagiri district recently. In July 2015, a huge stash of 44kg pangolin scales was recovered near Chiplun, and in February this year, 12kg scales were recovered […]

Pangolin Trafficking on the Rise While the Government is in Slumber – India

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Last week, when Ratnagiri police raided a house in the town located on the Konkan coast following a tip-off about an illegal gun being kept there, they stumbled upon a stash of pangolin scales. The seizure is the latest revelation of illegal wildlife trade in body parts of the insectivorous mammal, which is in demand for its supposed therapeutic value in Oriental medicine. Activists and forest officials claim that these seizures — three in Ratnagiri […]

Taking Pangolins Off the Menu – Bloomberg

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The latest poster mammal in the struggle against environmental crimes is something called a pangolin. Cute and scaly, it is no match for the criminal gangs that have made it one of the most trafficked animals for bogus medicines and gourmet meals. A recent report from the United Nations and Interpol highlights the sophistication of this new breed of criminals, and the difficulty and necessity of fighting them. Their interlinked networks connect local resources to global markets in surprising […]