Ten years ago, we created Save Pangolins around a simple premise: raise awareness about pangolins. Back then, most people had never heard of a pangolin or knew that they were seriously threatened by the illegal wildlife trade. Today, pangolins are the most illegally trafficked mammal in the world for their meat and scales, and we are witnessing poaching at astonishing levels that will certainly drive them to extinction unless we intervene.

Today, however, we are here to celebrate good news.

Save Pangolins joined IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group members and other experts from 16 countries gathered in Singapore June 28-30th to create the first ever regional strategy to conserve the Critically Endangered Sunda pangolin.

The workshop was the first in a series to develop detailed, regional strategies for each of the eight pangolin species, which will also be bolstered by the development of national action plans. Together the regional and national plans will inform one consolidated global strategy for pangolin conservation in the next decade.

Today is World Pangolin Day – a time to celebrate some of nature’s most unique and lovable animals. But it is also a day for action. The desire for their meat and scales is driving pangolins to extinction, right when many people around the world are only just discovering they exist. If we don’t come together – online and in the real world – we stand to lose an animal that has been on this planet for 80 million years.

Pangolins are gentle, insect-eating mammals about the size of a house cat. They have long faces with no teeth and a sticky tongue that is longer than the length of its body when unfurled. Each pangolin can devour up to 70 million insects per year by some estimates.

It was a monumental win for pangolin conservation as all 8 pangolin species were uplisted to Appendix I at the CITES Convention of the Parties in Johannesburg several days ago.

This means that all 8 species of pangolins are banned from all international commercial trade.

It was a near unanimous decision by the parties to uplist pangolins, with only one country voting against.

It was striking to see NGOs unite with the shared goal to support the uplisting of all 8 pangolin species.

Placing all pangolin species on Appendix I will encourage more stringent protections within countries where pangolins occur.

Today is World Pangolin Day, an opportunity to celebrate some of the most fascinating animals on Earth, and also some of the world’s most threatened. More than one million pangolins have been poached from the wild over the past decade, making them the most illegally trafficked mammals in the world. As a result, all eight species of pangolins are threatened with extinction.

But there is hope. Today we celebrate the emerging heroes who are working to conserve pangolins. Nine African and Vietnamese conservationists have been selected for the 2016 MENTOR-POP Fellowship program – a new initiative that builds capacity for conserving pangolins. Based in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the 15 month MENTOR Progress on Pangolins (POP) Fellowship will develop a trans-disciplinary team of early-career conservation practitioners to champion the conservation of pangolins in Central Africa.

People have asked us, “why pangolins?” We answer: they are the most trafficked mammals in the world – they matter, and need our help. But what does trafficking mean? It means pangolins are stolen – stolen from their habitats, stolen from the people whose traditions depend on them, stolen from the fabric of nature and culture. Driven by greed, ignorance and depravity, trafficking is a crime without mercy.

The International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP)’s Paul Hilton has published his account of a recent bust of pangolin smugglers in Indonesia. These photos come closer than any we’ve in seen in our eight years of operations to capturing the tragedy that is pangolin trafficking.