Last week the world woke up to the news that China, the largest consumer of pangolins, declared a ban on the use of pangolin scales and meat as a "key ingredient" in traditional medicine (TCM) with immediate effect.
Although it is still unclear whether this implies a total ban in their commercialization, the news were welcomed by conservationists around the world, many of whom have constantly spoken out about the potential risks of wildlife trade to human health. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be a mirror for humanity, the latter being shown the consequences of disrespecting natures balance. With most governments struggling to win against the virus and healthcare systems collapsing, we have learnt the hard way that we are better off preventing such pandemics than enduring their onslaught.
The ban of pangolin use in TCM is a major step in acknowledging the risk of wildlife trade to human health. Our planet’s health, and hence our own existence, will highly depend on the decisions that we make today. In the long run, proactivity and transparency seem to be our best hope.
From Bats to Pangolins, the Risks of Wildlife Trade:
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, pangolins and bats have been in the spotlight as possible hosts of the virus. Six months after the first few cases came to light, we are still uncertain as to which of the two species could be linked to transmitting the virus to humans. However, one thing is evidently clear – human encroachment into wildlife habitats and wildlife trade poses a serious threat to our own existence. Seventy percent of emerging viral diseases have spread from animals to humans. Wildlife trade not only exposes humans to novel viruses, but also threatens the planet's biodiversity.
The link between human health, and the health of the planet is clear. According to a recent UN study, the speed at which we are causing wildlife extinction threatens our own existence in the planet. At this moment in time, over 1 million species face extinction, and humans are often directly or indirectly the driving cause.
Of the million species that face extinction today, the pangolin is the world’s most trafficked mammal. Over the last 10 years, pangolins have become the target of massive exploitation. One pangolin is snatched from the wild every 5 minutes. According to TRAFFIC, an organization that monitors regional and global trends in wildlife trafficking, around ten million pangolins have been illegally traded or poached in the last decade. The pangolin produces only one offspring a year - the challenges to its survival are clear.
As Dr. Sonja Luz, Director of Conservation, Research and Veterinary Services at Wildlife Reserves Singapore, explains –
“There are 8 species of pangolins in the world, four in Asia and four in Africa. All of them threatened with extinction. They are in the top three categories of the IUCN red list. All 8 species were listed in 2016 under CITES, which means they all have the highest level of trade regulation and yet they remain the most trafficked mammal in the world. African pangolins are being targeted to a greater extent because Asian pangolins have fallen in numbers over the years. There is also still a lot of Elephant tusk and Rhino horn poaching going on in Africa and often these shipments serve as vehicles to traffick other species such as the pangolin”.
Proactivity and Transparency are our Best Hope to Protect Biodiversity. The Development of a Regional and National Conservation Plan for Pangolins in Asia:
According to Dr. Sonja Luz, “To be successful in achieving positive and lasting conservation outcomes, problems must be tackled by addressing animal, human and habitat needs equally. To me: saving species and protecting habitats is the ultimate goal, but to get there, we have to build capacity as well as enable and empower people to care for nature. We also have to make sure we use our individual strengths in a well concerted way, which is best described through the One Plan Approach to Conservation (OPA). I am convinced that only if we take the time to work through these massive challenges together, and proactively integrate ex-situ strategies into conservation planning, we will be successful in protecting our planet’s biodiversity.
“With pangolins we have a good chance right now if we proactively go in there and work in coordination and with transparency, so we are very clear on our agenda.” Said Dr. Luz regarding pangolin conservation in Asia.
Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) focuses its efforts on the Sunda Pangolin, one of the four species of Asian pangolins alongside with the Indian Pangolin, the Palawan Philippine Pangolin and the Chinese pangolin.
“We have been supporting local and regional conservation efforts, but the most important thing is that we have initiated the Regional and National Action Plan for Sunda Pangolin. We have held two workshops here at the zoo where we brought participants from all around the world who have the knowledge and expertise in pangolins to come up with a very comprehensive One Plan Approach (OPA). This plan now needs to be followed through and implemented in order to achieve that ultimate goal of ensuring that we keep our Sunda Pangolins around for the long term”.
A major part of the strategy is to mitigate the threats through raising awareness, law enforcement and by supporting governments at various forms, but it also involves putting together an ex-situ needs assessment, based on IUCN guidelines to evaluate whether there is a benefit for ex-situ management such as caring and breeding pangolins for conservation in a zoological setting.
“We often breed animals in zoological institutions because we need to maintain a sustainable population that can ultimately support conservation. At the same time, we target species at the brink of extinction and conduct ex-situ and in-situ assessments to take action now, so that we are not waiting until we are down to the last animal to act”, said Dr. Luz regarding WRS pangolin conservation breeding program.
Building capacity across the region is fundamental according to Dr. Luz. “We see a lot of live animal confiscations in this region, among them are many threatened species such as pangolins, which often end up in facilities that are forced to quickly release the animals because they have no ways of looking after them properly. Such emergency releases can pose taxonomic and health risks to existing wild populations, but also raise welfare concerns where individuals are not properly evaluated prior to release. Pangolins are highly sensitive and very tricky to take care of. We feel that it is really important that we discuss how to improve ex-situ activities that are happening with pangolins, and ex-situ meaning not only management in zoos but also management in the short term under confiscation, rescue, rehabilitation and release programs.”
Learning how to care for pangolins has proven to be a challenge. Most animals that are rescued come in injured or traumatized.
“A few years ago, a large number of pangolins were confiscated live in Singapore by our government authorities. This was the first live pangolin confiscation ever received by the zoo. After receiving and unpacking the boxes, we found most of the pangolins dead with only 10 left alive. We took them in and tried to keep them alive and realized how difficult it was. Sunda pangolins at this point have never been kept under human care. Not only did we not have the right expertise at the time, the animals were also severely compromised from the travel and trauma they had endured. As a result, they all died. We felt really terrible about this and decided that we have to understand how to care for these animals, should we ever receive such confiscations again. And we have learned and come a long way since then. As the national designated rescued wildlife centre, our Wildlife Research & Healthcare Centre have treated and cared for more than 120 injured and rescued Sunda pangolins in Singapore. The Night Safari, one of our wildlife parks, became the first in the world to exhibit and successfully breed the Sunda Pangolin under human care. Since 2011, we have celebrated five baby births and our hope is that some of the offspring could eventually help to repopulate Singapore’s forests” - Dr. Sonja Luz.
“Singapore is a very keen partner, together with a few other facilities around the region that include rescue centres and zoos, to develop a regional registry for every single individual that is currently held under human care. This is to make sure that they are all well cared for, and that the facilities have the capacity and receive the necessary training to properly care for the pangolins. Then, we make sure that in the long run these animals become part of an assurance population, which will include a coordinated regional conservation breeding program.”
Building with Nature, not Against it: Singapore’s Mandai Wildlife Bridge:
As part of the National Conservation Plan, Singapore’s Pangolin working group is collaborating with NParks to improve connectivity of the local reserves to minimize the risk of road kills, which is the main threat to pangolins in Singapore.
A great example of how collaboration and proper planning can support a country’s biodiversity is the recently inaugurated Mandai Wildlife Bridge over a “live” road, a specially designed ecological bridge to provide a safe passage for wildlife crossings. For the first time in 60 years, the two forest patches of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve on both sides of Mandai Lake Road have been reconnected by this bridge. Over the years, there has been known traffic accidents involving animals including a pangolin and leopard cat.
“To me it is an incredible example that Singapore and Mandai are setting for the future of urban development. You have to build with nature, not against it”, says Dr. Luz.
When I asked Dr. Luz if there was a future for pangolins in Singapore, she commented –
“Here in Singapore we are lucky and fortunate that the threats Pangolins are facing are not as complex as in the region and globally. Also, we have incredible facilities and teams of conservationists, nature enthusiasts, veterinarians and caretakers working together to find solutions. With that, I am fairly optimistic that we can create a future for Pangolins in Singapore, and hopefully also improve the situation for the many other threatened species in Singapore and the Southeast Asian region.
Please visit WRS to learn more about Wildlife Conservation efforts in Singapore and how you can support it.
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