WCC 2016 Res 015 - Progress Report

At the CITES CoP17 meeting, Parties agreed to transfer all eight species of pangolin from Appendix II to Appendix I bringing about an international trade ban in wild caught pangolins traded for commercial purposes. The IUCN Secretariat, working with the Pangolin Specialist Group, completed a report for the CITES Secretariat (under contract) which informed the CITES Standing Committee at its 69th meeting. Recommendations in the report led to draft decisions being proposed which could well be adopted at CoP18 (May 2019).

The IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group has implemented a number of acitivties to support the conservation of pangolins. This includes:
- Holding a Regional Conservation Planning Workshop for the Sunda pangolin, to develop a Regional Conservation Strategy for the species, and holding a National Planning workshop to develop a National Strategy for this species for Singapore. This was done in collaboration with Wildlife Reserves Singapore, the SSC Asian Species Action Partnership (ASAP), and the Conservation Planning Specialist Group.
- Holding a National Planning workshop for the Chinese pangolin in Taiwan with Taiwanese partners, including Taipei Zoo and the Endangered Species Research Institute in Taiwan, and with the Conservation Planning Specialist Group.
- Awareness raising activities were implemented for pangolins by the Pangolin Specialist Group and partners, including the Zoological Society of London, through celebrating World Pangolin Day.
- The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service funded a project to develop monitoring methods for pangolins which is being implemented by the IUCN Secretariat (Global Species Programme) in collaboration with the Pangolin Specialist Group.
- Projects are ongoing to understand demand for pangolin products traded illegally in order to change behaviour. For example, the Zoological Society of London is conducting such a project in China.