Illegal trade in pangolins keeps growing as criminal networks expand

These bags represent a small portion of a nine-ton illegal shipment of pangolin scales from Nigeria seized by Hong Kong customs in January 2019. A new report confirms that this illegal trade is only growing—and that organized international criminal networks that previously dealt predominantly with African elephant ivory are increasingly turning to pangolins.“The level at which pangolins are being trafficked is huge compared to what it has been in the past,” says Sarah Stoner, director of intelligence at the Wildlife Justice Commission, an international foundation that aims to disrupt and help dismantle the illegal wildlife trade, and lead author of the report. After China banned its domestic ivory trade in 2018, the price of ivory plummeted, and Stoner suspects that wildlife criminals who formerly concentrated mainly on ivory are now exploiting pangolin scales to help maintain profit margins. As the Wildlife Justice Commission reports, the medicinal system is likely being used to launder illegally obtained African pangolin scales into China’s legal domestic market.A decision announced last August by the Chinese government may reduce demand for pangolin scales.