Southeast Nigeria’s pangolin crisis: Local appetite, not Asian demand, drives massive killings

DDM News

A groundbreaking study has overturned assumptions about the motivations behind pangolin hunting in southeast Nigeria.

Contrary to long-held beliefs, local consumption, not Asian medicinal markets, is the leading force behind pangolin exploitation in the region, Diaspora Digital Media (DDM) gathers.

The study, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, focused on Nigeria’s Cross River Forest landscape, a key biodiversity hotspot.

Researchers surveyed 809 people, including 590 hunters and 219 bushmeat vendors, across 33 communities from 2020 to 2023.

They discovered that 97% of pangolins were caught accidentally or during general hunting, not through targeted poaching missions.

A staggering 98% of captured pangolins were killed for meat, with 71% consumed by hunters and 27% sold locally.

Only 30% of pangolin scales were sold; the remaining 70% were discarded, highlighting weak local interest in scales.

In fact, the price of pangolin meat is up to four times higher than that of the scales.

This significant price difference points to high palatability, confirmed by interviews with 570 people across 15 communities.

Pangolin meat was rated among the tastiest out of 93 wild animal proteins commonly eaten in the area.

Annually, around 21,000 pangolins are killed in the Cross River Forest landscape alone, the study estimated.

This amounts to roughly 32,700 kilograms of pangolin meat and scales harvested every year in that region.

Formal hunters using guns accounted for 59% of the annual pangolin kills, with casual hunters making up the rest.

Most hunters reported capturing pangolins by hand, especially formal hunters who did so in nearly 90% of cases.

Casual hunters also frequently used wire snares, accounting for 32% of their pangolin captures.

Other methods like using dogs or guns were rarely employed, contributing only a small percentage of captures.

Nigeria is the world’s largest hub for pangolin trafficking, with over 190,000 kg of scales seized since 2010.

This figure represents an estimated 800,000 pangolins, mostly trafficked to Asian markets over an 11-year period.

Still, researchers argue that local meat demand, not international trafficking, is the dominant threat within southeast Nigeria.

Lead author Charles Emogor emphasized the need to look beyond global trade routes to understand local drivers.

He and his co-authors argue that international policies often miss the everyday realities faced in forest communities.

The study recommends conservation strategies like promoting alternative proteins and creating local economic incentives to reduce hunting.

Three species of pangolins live in Nigeria: black-bellied, white-bellied, and giant pangolins.

White-bellied and giant pangolins are endangered, while the black-bellied species is listed as vulnerable.

Though hunting and trading pangolins is illegal in Nigeria, enforcement remains weak, especially in rural areas.

Conservation laws like CITES have failed to address the deep-rooted local dependence on bushmeat.

The researchers urge policymakers to consider entire trade chains, from rural hunters to urban markets to global buyers.

“You can’t protect pangolins with one-size-fits-all policies,” one co-author noted.

Until local meat consumption is addressed, pangolins will continue to disappear from Nigeria’s southeastern forests.

The real danger lies not in faraway countries but in village kitchens and forest trails of southeast Nigeria.

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