Alarm as Africa’s pangolins disappear at an alarming rate
Although pangolin scales are widely used in some traditional medicine markets, there is no scientifically proven medicinal value attached to them. Nevertheless, demand continues to fuel criminal networks that span multiple continents.
According to global seizure records and trade monitoring data, more than one million pangolins were killed and trafficked between 2000 and 2013.
Between 2010 and 2015 alone, authorities recorded 1,270 seizures across 67 countries and territories, involving an estimated 120 tonnes of pangolin body parts and more than 46,000 individual carcasses.
Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, and Nigeria are increasingly becoming key source and transit hubs in the global illegal trade of pangolins, the world's most trafficked wild mammal.
The alarm was raised on February 21 as the world marked the World Pangolin Day. Conservation lobby group World Animal Protection highlighted the rapid expansion of trafficking networks operating across East, West, and Central Africa. The organisation warned that this trend is accelerating the pressure on already declining pangolin populations.
