Pangolins are being wiped out at an industrial scale. Court records, undercover investigations and global seizures expose over half a million pangolins detected in illegal trade in just eight years. No other mammal is so uniformly imperilled with all eight species racing toward extinction.
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Beneficiaries
Despite its evolutionary vulnerability to poaching, pangolins play a vital role in maintaining ecosystems. Its loss would cause a devastating ecological imbalance. Between 2016–24, over 553,042 pangolins were seized in 49 countries, with single seizures representing tens of thousands of individuals killed. 160,000 kg of scales were seized in China alone, enough to fill 50 industrial shipping containers. Organised crime, legal loopholes and weak enforcement drive poaching.
We protect 5,000 hectares of pangolin habitat in Kenya, and ranger patrols in Kenya, Zambia and Thailand. We support demand-reduction campaigns in Cameroon, Vietnam and China, promoting pangolin conservation and debunking myths about medicinal usage, assist traditional practitioners in finding alternative wildlife free products, and work with restaurants to take pangolins off the menu. We fund investigations into the illegal trade in pangolins and workshops uniting investigators across regions.
