The Pangolin Crisis Fund, now in its second year of existence has recently funded two new conservation projects for pangolins with an aim to protect landscapes where important pangolin populations still exist. Both projects hope to increase our ecological understanding of pangolins and use this information to strategize more robust protection and conservation programs.
The Pangolin Project: conservationists in Kenya aim to use funding from the PCF to identify key areas that pangolins inhabit to increase protection and monitoring. Although the ground pangolin has the highest protection in Kenya under the Kenya Wildlife Act, poaching still continues. Conservationists do not have adequate information and knowledge of the status and distribution of ground pangolins in Kenya and poaching incidents are most likely largely underestimated. The Pangolin Project will expand the Pangolin Ranger program and identify the major challenges and gaps when it comes to protection of the species.
Identifying Strongholds for Asia’s Critically Endangered Pangolins: led by Daniel Wilcox and Robert Timmins, this project will use funding from the PCF to protect pangolin landscapes, especially areas where important populations remain in Asia. The project will assess where pangolin populations exist and are distributed, and what type of resources are needed to protect them and their future. In the past, conservation efforts have fallen short without the proper funding and resources to sustain them. The conservation strategy put in place by these conservationists will be readily available to others who can use the learned lessons, challenges and successes to their benefit. The project will begin in Southeast Asia, assess species recovery potential and plan how to optimize resources with the hope that a successful conservation program can be implemented and expanded to other parts of Asia.
With these two new projects, the Pangolin Crisis Fund hopes to dramatically increase protection for pangolins in areas that need it the most and create long-lasting strategies for their conservation that can be utilized by other conservationists.
Photo: Ground pangolin © Adrian Steirn / Tikki Hywood Trust
