Assessing Africa-wide Pangolin exploitation by scaling local data

Daniel J. Ingram; Lauren Coad; Katharine A. Abernethy; Fiona Maisels; Emma J. Stokes; Kadiri S. Bobo; Thomas Breuer; Edson Gandiwa; Andrea Ghiurghi; Elizabeth Greengrass; Tomas Holmern; Towa O. W. Kamgaing; Anne-Marie Ndong Obiang; John R. Poulsen; Judith Schleicher; Martin Reinhardt Nielsen; Hilary Solly; Carrie L. Vath; Matthias Waltert; Charlotte E. L. Whitham; David S. Wilkie; Jörn P. W. Scharlemann

doi:10.1111/conl.12389

Assessing Africa-wide Pangolin exploitation by scaling local data

Daniel J. Ingram, Lauren Coad, Katharine A. Abernethy, Fiona Maisels, Emma J. Stokes, Kadiri S. Bobo, Thomas Breuer, Edson Gandiwa, Andrea Ghiurghi, Elizabeth Greengrass, Tomas Holmern, Towa O. W. Kamgaing, Anne-Marie Ndong Obiang, John R. Poulsen, Judith Schleicher, Martin Reinhardt Nielsen, Hilary Solly, Carrie L. Vath, Matthias Waltert, Charlotte E. L. WhithamDavid S. Wilkie, Jörn P. W. Scharlemann

Section for Global Development

45 Citations (Scopus)

39 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Overexploitation is one of the main pressures driving wildlife closer to extinction, yet broad-scale data to evaluate species’ declines are limited. Using African pangolins (Family: Pholidota) as a case study, we demonstrate that collating local-scale data can provide crucial information on regional trends in exploitation of threatened species to inform conservation actions and policy. We estimate that 0.4-2.7 million pangolins are hunted annually in Central African forests. The number of pangolins hunted has increased by ∼150% and the proportion of pangolins of all vertebrates hunted increased from 0.04% to 1.83% over the past four decades. However, there were no trends in pangolins observed at markets, suggesting use of alternative supply chains. We found evidence that the price of giant (Smutsia gigantea) and arboreal (Phataginus sp.) pangolins in urban markets has increased, mirroring trends in Asian pangolins. Efforts and resources are needed to increase law enforcement and population monitoring, and investigate linkages between subsistence hunting and illegal wildlife trade.

Original language	English
Article number	e12389
Journal	Conservation Letters
Volume	11
Issue number	2
Pages (from-to)	1-9
Number of pages	9
ISSN	1755-263X
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12389
Publication status	Published - 2018

Keywords

Africa
OFFTAKE
hunting
market
pangolins
trade
wild meat

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Ingram, D. J., Coad, L., Abernethy, K. A., Maisels, F., Stokes, E. J., Bobo, K. S., Breuer, T., Gandiwa, E., Ghiurghi, A., Greengrass, E., Holmern, T., Kamgaing, T. O. W., Obiang, A.-M. N., Poulsen, J. R., Schleicher, J., Nielsen, M. R., Solly, H., Vath, C. L., Waltert, M., ... Scharlemann, J. P. W. (2018). Assessing Africa-wide Pangolin exploitation by scaling local data. Conservation Letters, 11(2), 1-9. Article e12389. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12389

Ingram, DJ, Coad, L, Abernethy, KA, Maisels, F, Stokes, EJ, Bobo, KS, Breuer, T, Gandiwa, E, Ghiurghi, A, Greengrass, E, Holmern, T, Kamgaing, TOW, Obiang, A-MN, Poulsen, JR, Schleicher, J, Nielsen, MR, Solly, H, Vath, CL, Waltert, M, Whitham, CEL, Wilkie, DS & Scharlemann, JPW 2018, 'Assessing Africa-wide Pangolin exploitation by scaling local data', Conservation Letters, vol. 11, no. 2, e12389, pp. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12389

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abstract = "Overexploitation is one of the main pressures driving wildlife closer to extinction, yet broad-scale data to evaluate species{\textquoteright} declines are limited. Using African pangolins (Family: Pholidota) as a case study, we demonstrate that collating local-scale data can provide crucial information on regional trends in exploitation of threatened species to inform conservation actions and policy. We estimate that 0.4-2.7 million pangolins are hunted annually in Central African forests. The number of pangolins hunted has increased by ∼150% and the proportion of pangolins of all vertebrates hunted increased from 0.04% to 1.83% over the past four decades. However, there were no trends in pangolins observed at markets, suggesting use of alternative supply chains. We found evidence that the price of giant (Smutsia gigantea) and arboreal (Phataginus sp.) pangolins in urban markets has increased, mirroring trends in Asian pangolins. Efforts and resources are needed to increase law enforcement and population monitoring, and investigate linkages between subsistence hunting and illegal wildlife trade.",

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AU - Abernethy, Katharine A.

AU - Maisels, Fiona

AU - Stokes, Emma J.

AU - Bobo, Kadiri S.

AU - Breuer, Thomas

AU - Gandiwa, Edson

AU - Ghiurghi, Andrea

AU - Greengrass, Elizabeth

AU - Holmern, Tomas

AU - Kamgaing, Towa O. W.

AU - Obiang, Anne-Marie Ndong

AU - Poulsen, John R.

AU - Schleicher, Judith

AU - Nielsen, Martin Reinhardt

AU - Solly, Hilary

AU - Vath, Carrie L.

AU - Waltert, Matthias

AU - Whitham, Charlotte E. L.

AU - Wilkie, David S.

AU - Scharlemann, Jörn P. W.

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AB - Overexploitation is one of the main pressures driving wildlife closer to extinction, yet broad-scale data to evaluate species’ declines are limited. Using African pangolins (Family: Pholidota) as a case study, we demonstrate that collating local-scale data can provide crucial information on regional trends in exploitation of threatened species to inform conservation actions and policy. We estimate that 0.4-2.7 million pangolins are hunted annually in Central African forests. The number of pangolins hunted has increased by ∼150% and the proportion of pangolins of all vertebrates hunted increased from 0.04% to 1.83% over the past four decades. However, there were no trends in pangolins observed at markets, suggesting use of alternative supply chains. We found evidence that the price of giant (Smutsia gigantea) and arboreal (Phataginus sp.) pangolins in urban markets has increased, mirroring trends in Asian pangolins. Efforts and resources are needed to increase law enforcement and population monitoring, and investigate linkages between subsistence hunting and illegal wildlife trade.

KW - Africa

KW - OFFTAKE

KW - hunting

KW - market

KW - pangolins

KW - trade

KW - wild meat

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M3 - Journal article

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SP - 1

EP - 9

JO - Conservation Letters

JF - Conservation Letters

IS - 2

M1 - e12389

ER -

Assessing Africa-wide Pangolin exploitation by scaling local data

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Keywords

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