Scales of Injustice: Pangolins in Peril Anti-Poaching April 20, 2026 The world’s most trafficked mammal is still being traded at an industrial scale. Awareness has grown, but trafficking persists. Despite a global commercial trade ban in their body parts and products since 2016, pangolins are still being taken from the wild at scale, pushing all 8 species closer to extinction¹. This is what extinction looks like in real time. Image credit: Aaron Gekoski, World Animal Protection Driving Demand This trade persists in part because pangolins are inherently difficult to monitor and protect. Shy and nocturnal, they remain largely out of sight, whilst demand for their scales continues to grow. In 2024 alone, at least 15 tonnes of pangolin scales were seized globally, an increase of approximately three tonnes on the previous year². Pangolins are exploited across multiple continents through a global trafficking network. Their meat is eaten both as a delicacy and bushmeat, while their scales, despite no proven medicinal value, are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine and sold globally. Connected to China alone, 160,000kg of scales were seized in under a decade3, enough to fill 50 industrial shipping containers. Scales bought for as little as $5 per kilogram in Nigeria are resold for up to $1,000 – $1,800 per kilogram in China4, revealing the vast profit margins driving this trade. Image credit: Environmental Investigations Agency A Failed Defence Pangolins are built to survive. They have layers of sharp keratin scales made for defence, protecting them from natural predators. But not against us. Not from humans. When threatened, pangolins curl into a ball, relying on their armour to keep them safe. For millions of years, that has been enough. But they have not evolved to defend against humankind. Their greatest defence has become their greatest threat, turned into a commodity within an illegal global trade. At Scale Today, pangolins are the most trafficked mammals on earth. More than half a million pangolins were seized across 49 countries in less than 10 years5. Scales accounted for 99% of the trade6, showing how the very thing designed to protect them has become the currency driving their exploitation. But seizures only tell part of the story. They are widely estimated to represent as little as 10% of total trade7. Much of this trade goes undetected. The real number is far higher. In mixed shipments with ivory, pangolin scales now surpass ivory by volume8, signalling a shift in the priorities of global wildlife trafficking networks. Over 42 tonnes of pangolin scales were recorded in just 169 court cases in China over a decade9. Individual shipments can represent tens of thousands of animals. This isn’t opportunistic poaching; it’s industrial extraction, operating through transnational criminal networks. Image credit: Vietnam Police Shifting Geographies of Loss The trade has also shifted. As Asian pangolin populations have declined, Africa has become the primary source. Since 2015, African pangolins have accounted for 90% of seized scales10. This reflects both the depletion of Asian populations and increasing pressure on African species11, highlighting a clear transition in global pangolin trade and the urgent need for stronger enforcement and demand-reduction campaigns. Hunted in the wild, pangolins are prisoners to the network of criminals who smuggle them across borders from Africa and Asia through complex trafficking routes, to be sold in markets thousands of miles away. This is organised crime. A global system enabled by gaps in enforcement and corruption that will continue until it’s forced to stop. This is a global supply chain. Dismantling it requires more than a single intervention. It demands a coordinated response across every stage of the system. The Future of Protection Thanks to your support, DSWF takes a holistic approach to protecting pangolins, targeting the multiple pressures driving their decline. Our support sits across every level of the supply chain. Real progress takes time, through a bottom up, top-down approach to protection. Donations support frontline ranger patrols and anti-poaching operations to protect critical habitats, and to intercept poaching before it escalates, in Kenya, Thailand and Zambia. Our conservation efforts secure and manage key ecosystems, including over 5,000 hectares of Giant Pangolin habitat in Kenya, reducing the threat of deforestation and the electric fences that are so deadly to pangolins. Alongside this, donations support investigations tracking trafficking networks across West Africa and Southeast Asia, mapping routes, gathering intelligence, and supporting enforcement efforts that disrupt the illegal trade. Demand-reduction campaigns in Vietnam, Cameroon and China continue to challenge the beliefs and behaviours that sustain the market. This approach is already shifting behaviour in measurable ways. Awareness campaigns have reached 800 million people in China and Vietnam12, contributing to measurable shifts in attitudes. The belief in pangolin scales as an effective medicine had a 20% drop from 70% of people to 50% of people over 18 months13, resulting in 55% of medical practitioners willing to try alternatives14. In Cameroon, the consumption of pangolin meat has fallen by 27% over a 2-year period15. What Remains at Stake But the threat of extinction remains critical with the illegal networks deeply embedded and at play. Poaching is just the visible edge of the problem. What sits behind it, is organised, cross-border, and built to persist. Trafficking routes shift as enforcement increases. Markets evolve and demand continues. Unless the illegal trade is dismantled across every level, the pressure on pangolins will continue to intensify, and extinction becomes an increasingly likely outcome. The challenge is immense, but so is the opportunity to intervene. This is an immediate, urgent and complex problem that will only be solved by taking action on multiple levels, which DSWF will continue to do thanks to your generous support. “Pangolins are the world’s most trafficked mammal, proof that rarity alone is no protection. Reduced to a commodity for trade in soup, meat and medicine, when nature is given a price tag- we plunder. What should be an animal built from scales for protection cannot defend itself against the industrial scale of the illegal wildlife trade, a multi-billion-dollar industry. Pangolins are being persecuted to the brink of extinction, and unless we restore their true value and recognise their ecological importance, they may be lost forever.” – Georgina Lamb, Chief Executive Officer David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation Pangolins survived 80+ million years of evolution. They may not survive us. Be part of the solution. Protect pangolins. The Big Give Earth Raise campaign will run from 22 – 29 April only, donations to DSWF will be DOUBLED. Every donation you chose to give, whether its £10 or £100 will have double the impact to support our fight against the illegal wildlife trade in Pangolins. For more information visit: Scales of Injustice. Image credit: Environmental Investigations Agency 1. cites.org/sites/default/files/documents/E-CoP19-Inf-39.pdf 2. eia-international.org/news/highlighting-eias-illegal-trade-concerns/ 3. https://eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/2025-EIA.pdf 4. www.pangolinreports.earth/ 5. eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/2025-EIA-A-View-from-the-Courts-1.pdf 6. eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/2025-EIA-A-View-from-the-Courts-1.pdf 7. www.downtoearth.org.in/wildlife-biodiversity/world-pangolin-day-2026 8. www.pangolinreports.earth/ 9. eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/2025-EIA-A-View-from-the-Courts-1.pdf 10. wildaidafrica.org/posts/meat-scales-pangolin-survival-hangs-balance 11. pdf.sciencedirectassets.com/306541/ 12. wildaidafrica.org/posts/meat-scales-pangolin-survival-hangs-balance 13. wildaidafrica.org/posts/meat-scales-pangolin-survival-hangs-balance 14. wildaidafrica.org/posts/meat-scales-pangolin-survival-hangs-balance 15. wildaidafrica.org/posts/meat-scales-pangolin-survival-hangs-balance Link copied
