Nearly 900,000 pangolins, an endangered animal, have been sold illegally around the world in the past two decades, an NGO that monitors illegal animal trafficking channels said on Thursday.
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“Not a day goes by without seeing a seizure of wild animals in Southeast Asia and often the volumes are impressive,” noted Kanitha Krishnasamy, director of the NGO Traffic in the region.
The NGO estimated around 895,000 pangolins sold illegally between 2000 and 2019 worldwide for seizures.
Some 96,000 kilograms of scales were thus confiscated between 2017 and 2019, in Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.
The small mammal is the most poached in the world, for its scales which are widely used in traditional Asian medicine, for virtues which have not been proven, and its flesh appreciated by gourmets.
The shy ant-eating animal, which curls up in front of predators, has been poached extensively in Southeast Asia and is now increasingly hunted in Africa.
In 2016, the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) strictly prohibited its trade.
Despite the move, trafficking continues and the NGO has called for tougher sanctions against traffickers to close the markets and platforms that allow the online trade in wildlife.
Chinese researchers have estimated that the pangolin may have transmitted the new coronavirus to humans, but other scientists urge caution while awaiting final confirmation.
Some 225,000 kilograms of African elephant ivory, 100,000 pig-nosed turtles and 45,000 birds have also been seized in Southeast Asia in recent years, the NGO added.
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