China is removing one of the world's most trafficked(非法买卖) animals, the pangolin, from its list of animals used for traditional medicine.
Pangolins, despite being covered in scales(鳞片), grow to around the size of a house cat. Their scales are made of keratin——the same material found in fingernails. They use those scales to protect themselves from enemies in the wild, but in Asia, these same scales are traded for medicine. Tens of thousands are killed every year, and one million pangolins are believed to have been trafficked between 2000 and 2013. Last year, authorities seized more than 130 tons of pangolin-related products, a figure believed to represent as many as 400,000 of the animals, according to WildAid conservation group.
There are eight species of pangolin found across Asia and Africa. Three of those are listed as seriously endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN): the Chinese pangolin, the Philippine pangolin and the Sunda pangolin. The remaining five are listed as either vulnerable or endangered.
Now, three species——the Chinese, Sunda and Indian pangolin——have been afforded the same protection in China as the Giant Panda and have been upgraded from Class II to the highest Class I protection. There's a punishment of 10 years of imprisonment for anyone caught hunting, killing or trading them.
The announcement was made in June. The Chinese government has also announced plans to recover the diminishing populations by improving field patrols (巡逻) and pushing habitat recovery efforts.
"It is great news that China has moved very quickly to close live wildlife markets," said WildAid CEO Peter Knights. "We hope this brings an end to legal sales of pangolin scales as soon as possible."
