No more trade in endangered pangolins, U.N. meeting decides

Record ID: 85323

  • Title: No more trade in endangered pangolins, U.N. meeting decides
  • Date: 28th September 2016
  • Summary: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (SEPTEMBER 28, 2016) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOUTH-EAST ASIA REGIONAL DIRECTOR, TRAFFIC, DR. CHRIS SHEPHERD, SAYING: "It also means now that all countries part of the CITES have the same set of tools to use to stop the trade and to fight the trade. On Appendix 1 there's no question, if there's pangolins and trade - it's illegal so everybody is working off the same page now."
  • Embargoed: 13th October 2016 16:50
  • Keywords: pangolins CITES illegal trafficking United Nations mammal
  • Location: BRUNEI, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA, THAILAND, INDONESIA
  • City: BRUNEI, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA, THAILAND, INDONESIA
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVA00651HE69Z
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    A global trade ban was imposed on Wednesday (September 28) on trade in highly endangered pangolins, a scaly animal with the dubious distinction of being the world's most poached mammal.
    Member states of the U.N.'s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted to place the eight species of pangolin on the convention's "Appendix I," which prohibits any cross-border movement in the animals or their body parts for commercial purposes.
    Like other illicit wildlife commodity pipelines, such as elephant ivory and rhino horn, Africa is the main source of pangolin supply, while the demand comes from Asia.
    Pangolin meat is prized as a delicacy in Asian economies such as Vietnam, while the animal's scales are used in traditional medicines. Shy and near-sighted, pangolins only venture out from the safety of their burrows or tree-top homes at night to scour for insects. When startled, they curl up into a ball - a technique that is futile against the cable snares set by hunters.
    All eight of the world's species of pangolin, which range from 30 to 100 cm (12 to 39 in) length, are threatened with extinction.
    Conservationists have said the demand boom stems from declining wild populations in Asia as well as high numbers of Chinese workers in Africa's resource and timber sectors, located in remote regions of the continent's interior.
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