Despite the protection measures, illegal hunting and sale of pangolin products continues in China. An article about this was published in Nature Conservation.
Pangolins or “Chinese lizards” are a family of scaly mammals. Their notable feature is that they curl into balls when threatened, and they feed on ants and termites. In recent years, the number of these animals has fallen sharply, due to the need for parts of their bodies for Chinese traditional medicine procedures (which have no scientific basis). In China, the pangolin trade and illegal hunting for them is officially banned, but a small number of these “medicine” can still be purchased legally in clinics and pharmacies.
Yifu Wang researched the pangolin scale trade in China by interviewing hospital and pharmacy staff in two provinces (Henan and Hainan). Between October 2016 and April 2017, he and his team interviewed doctors and 134 pharmacists from 41 hospitals. The study showed that pangolin flakes and derivatives are widely available in hospitals and pharmacies in these provinces. However, the illegal trade of pangolin products continues, with 46% of surveyed hospitals and 34% of surveyed pharmacies selling pangolin scale products illegally.
“The current legal trade allows 711 hospitals to sell pangolin products as medicine while complying with the country’s production, packaging and annual sales regulations,” explains Yifu Wang. “However, we show that pangolin flakes are in high demand and there are often illegal vendors selling pangolin products illegally. Moreover, the volume of product traded by legitimate vendors is estimated to be much greater than the supply capacity of legal resources.”
The authors of the study hope that their work will draw the attention of Chinese authorities to this problem.
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