The small, scaly pangolin is the world’s most trafficked animal. Poachers in Africa are capturing and killing vast numbers of these animals and illegally shipping them to markets throughout Asia, but mostly in China and Vietnam.
In 2017 the Africa-China Reporting Project at Wits University in Johannesburg collaborated with HK01, a Hong Kong news agency, and Anu Nkeze Paul, an environmental journalist in Cameroon, to investigate both the African supply side and the Asian demand side of the illegal trade in pangolin products.
Karen Chang is an investigative reporter at HK01 who did a lot of the research for this project on the Chinese side where she spoke with pangolin buyers in the southern province of Guangdong. She joins Eric & Cobus to discuss the vast scale of the pangolin trade and what she thinks can be done to reduce demand for this endangered animal.
WATCH: Pangolin smuggling route – from Africa to Asia (English subtitles start at 00:26)
WATCH: Pangolin smuggling for Chinese restaurants and medicines
Show Notes:
- The Daily Maverick: Cross-border investigation: Pangolin poaching in Africa and trafficking to Asia by HK01 and Anu Nkeze Paul
- HuffPost: Endangered Pangolins Are Being Smuggled For Meat By Criminal Organisations by Sophie Gallagher
- News24: Rare and In Demand by Sharika Regchand
