Poaching and wildlife conservation issues have largely fallen off the broader China-Africa agenda ever since Beijing outlawed its domestic ivory trade in 2018. Even as Chinese demand for endangered African wildlife products, particularly pangolin, and other animals such as donkeys whose skins are used to make a traditional Chinese medicine, shows no signs of waning, there’s been relatively little attention paid to these issues lately and they are rarely discussed at China-Africa ministerial and presidential exchanges.

But now these topics are back in the news again as a flurry of stories surfaced over the past few days on a wide range of issues in countries across the continent.