According to the latest update of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, all eight species of pangolin are now threatened with extinction.
The Chinese and Sunda pangolins are now classified as Critically Endangered.
29 July 2014: According to the latest update of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, all eight species of pangolin are now threatened with extinction. The Chinese and Sunda pangolins are now classified as Critically Endangered.
The IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Pangolin Specialist Group, hosted by IUCN Member the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), says that pangolins are now the most illegally traded mammal in the world, with more than one million individuals believed to have been taken from the wild over the past decade. Despite a ban, the illegal trade is thriving due to increasing demand for pangolin meat and scales, used in traditional medicine, especially in China and Viet Nam.
In response, the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group is launching ‘Scaling up Pangolin Conservation,’ a conservation action plan to stop the illegal trade and secure the future of pangolins in Asia and Africa. Dan Challender, Co-Chair of the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group highlighted that the first step is for the Chinese and Vietnamese Governments to conduct an inventory of their pangolin scale stocks and make this publically available to prove that wild-caught pangolins are no longer supplying the commercial trade. [IUCN News] [Website of IUCN Pangolin Specialist Group] [Publication: Scaling up Pangolin Conservation]