Pangolins face extinction as poachers defy official crackdown

Only last month, the Officer-in-Charge of Nigeria Customs Service Special Wildlife Office, Abimbola Animashawun-Isafiade, while speaking at the Pangolin Conservation Guild Nigeria symposium to mark the 2023 World Pangolin Day in Ibadan, said a total of 1,613 tonnes of pangolin scales meant for illicit trading were confiscated in 2022. On her part, the Chair of the Pangolin Conservation Guild Nigeria, Professor Olajumoke Morenikeji, stated that poacher had turned to Africa to supply tonnes of pangolins to the Asian market, noting that if left unchecked, the mammal would go into extinction. She said, "It is the most illegally traded mammal in the world. This is due to the increasing demand for their meat - eaten as a luxury dish in some parts of the world and their scales and other body parts, which are used in many traditional medicines."This high demand is causing unsustainable levels of poaching and illegal trade, driving pangolins to the brink of extinction. Among these, the pangolin ranks as one of the animals most threatened by extinction due to the activities of poachers. Tens of thousands of pangolins are poached every year, killed for their scales for use in traditional Chinese medicine and for their meat, a delicacy among some ultra-wealthy in China and Vietnam. According to National Geographic, there are eight species of pangolins. In 2016, the 186 countries party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the treaty that regulates the international wildlife trade, voted to ban the commercial trade in pangolins.