Court lifts ban on businessman's pangolin scales export license

By Andante Okanya

KAMPALA - Court has ordered that businessman Smith Ewa Maku be immediately granted an export license for all his stock of pangolin scales, worth billions of shillings.

Justice Elizabeth Musoke of the civil division of the High Court in Kampala dismissed a case filed by environmental lobby group Green Watch Uganda.

The case arose this year on January 23 when the lobby group sued Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) over purported illegal trade in endangered wildlife.

Green Watch had alleged that live pangolins are killed to fuel the lucrative trade.

They based their case on Maku's application to export 7,310kgs (about seven tonnes) of pangolin scales, valued at $4.2m (sh11b). It is part of stock owned by Maku, legally acquired from UWA stores.

But the judge dismissed the case, noting that Green Watch did not adduce any scientific data, and relied on inconclusive newspaper reports, which were speculative.

"I vacate the interim order and order that the license be given. The businessman can go ahead and export all his stock," the judge ordered.

The order in effect lifts the temporary ban imposed in March on UWA from issuing of the license, pending the dispose of the case.

The judgment was delivered in the presence of Maku. His legal team comprised of Richard Kabazzi, Joseph Kyazze, Anthony Kaweesi, and Iga Stephen.

UWA legal team comprised of Chemonges Sabilla, Ali Luzinda, and Annet Tuheisomwe, while Green Watch's lawyer was Samantha Atukunda.

On March 24, the judge allowed Maku to partner with UWA and battle Green Watch, after the businessman had petitioned court, asserting that his economic rights were under threat, because he had been excluded as a defendant. Read More

Source: newvision.co.ug

249kg of pangolin scales seized by Shanghai customs

Around 249 kilograms of pangolin scales were confiscated by customs officials at the Pudong International Airport—making this the largest ever seizure of animal products in the city.

Pangolins, for those unfamiliar, are scale-covered mammals sometimes referred to as a scaly anteaters. They're rare, adorable and hunted in China for their tough armor, which is believed by Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners to help cure cancer and asthma, among other ailments. The creatures can fetch up to 5,000 yuan per kilogram.

This load of scales was transported in nine black suitcases, which were seized on March 27 after officials spotted the animal products in an X-ray scanning machine, Shanghai Customs said yesterday.

A man and woman were detained by officials while picking up the suitcases from the luggage claim area. They said they'd been paid by a man surnamed Feng, who was helping a partner in Nigeria to deliver the scales to China.

Just 10 days later, customs officials stopped another person attempting to smuggle 25 kilograms of pangolin scales for someone who was working for the same man in Nigeria, surnamed Qiu.

Source: shanghaiist.com

'Shocking' scale of pangolin smuggling revealed

By Ella DaviesReporter, BBC Nature

Official records show that pangolins are being illegally traded on a "shocking" scale, according to a report. The globally threatened animals are sought for their scales which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Annual seizures have been estimated at roughly 10,000 animals but experts warn the illegal trade is far greater Chinese enforcement officials worked with researchers from the UK to assess the extent of the problem.

Zhao-Min Zhou, from the Public Security Bureau for Forests in China's Yunnan province, worked with researchers from the University of Oxford to analyse official records of pangolins seized from smugglers.

The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

"The numbers of pangolins traded are shocking, and all the more so considering the pharmaceutical pointlessness of the trade. This trade is intolerably wasteful," said Prof Macdonald, director of the University of Oxford's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), and a co-author of the paper.

He praised the leadership of Mr Zhou in the study, which gives conservationists the first glimpse of official records of seizures. Read more

Source: bbc.co.uk

12 pangolin saved from wildlife trafficking syndicate

NONG KHAI, July 19 -- Thailand's Mekong Riverine Operation Unit rescued 12 endangered pangolins – commonly known as ant eaters – and arrested one wildlife smuggler, Thai authorities said Thursday.

Capt Samart Srimuang, chief of the Operations and Intelligence Division of the Nong Khai-based Mekong Riverine Operation Unit, said the detainee was identified as Pongsak Thongbot, 28. He was arrested while driving his pickup truck carrying the endangered species in Rattanawapi district.

The suspect confessed that he was hired to transport 12 scaly ant-eaters from the southern province of Chumphon to Nong Khai. He said that he was to deliver the endangered species to an unidentified party near the Mekong River who would smuggle them across the border, according to the officer.

Pangolin scales and pangolin flesh are in high demand in Vietnam and China as medicine although their international trade is banned.

The smuggling and sale of pangolins is prohibited under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES. 

Source: mcot.net