Governments reaffirmed their commitment to pangolin conservation in August at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Conference of Parties 18 (CoP18), an international conference held every three years to discuss trade restrictions on wild animals. At the conference, the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group announced that more than 500,000 pangolins have been trafficked globally in the past three years.
At the CITES Conference of Parties 17 (CoP17) in 2016, pangolins were elevated from trade Appendix II to Appendix I. Species under Appendix I are prohibited from all international commercial trade because they are threatened with extinction. Despite pangolin trade being transferred from Appendix II to Appendix I, pangolin poaching has increased. A 2016 report showed that one million pangolins had been trafficked over the course of a ten-year time period for their meat and scales, which are used in traditional Asian medicines. The latest report shows that more than 500,000 pangolins have been trafficked over the course of three years.
In response to the increased trafficking of pangolins, the CITES parties agreed to several additional decisions regarding pangolin conservation. Pangolin range states (regions in Asia and Africa) would establish or develop existing management and conservation programs, and with their help report population estimates for each of the eight sub-species. In collaboration with conservationists, pangolin range states would also closely monitor pangolin trafficking by reporting on conservation status, legal and illegal trade, stocks of pangolins, stockpile management and effectiveness of law enforcement. The conservation reports and close monitoring are a continuation from CoP17 and will help determine what action needs to be taken in three years’ time at the CoP19.
With renewed efforts to stop the illegal poaching of pangolins, the CITES parties also addressed trade of existing stockpiles of pangolins and their scales. The CITES parties agreed that when a species is elevated from one trade appendix to another, stockpiles are subject to the current regulations, even if the stockpile was created when different regulations were in place. Going forward, all international commercial pangolin trade remains illegal.
